


Butterfly Effect

by 1lostone



Category: Ugly Betty
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Canon-Typical Drama, Drunken Shenanigans, F/M, Falling In Love, First Kiss, First Time, Jealousy, Matchmaking, Mutual Pining, Orig posted in 2008, transgender character, wow literally everyone in this fic ships Detty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-12
Updated: 2019-01-12
Packaged: 2019-10-08 22:14:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 50,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17394653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1lostone/pseuds/1lostone
Summary: Betty and Daniel aren't completely ass-over-teakettle in love with each other.Obviously.(Orig posted in 2008, with minor edits. It's complete- posting in chunks as I clean them up.)





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MissSarahSpeaks](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissSarahSpeaks/gifts).



> Okay I think I just had a time travel moment. No, not literally, but in fandom. You can read about it [here](https://www.google.com/url?q=http://1lostone.tumblr.com/post/181950867743/holy-shit&sa=D&ust=1547314112420000) if you want. So, full disclosure, this is a cringe-worthy fic that I probably should have let fade back into obscurity, but AO3 user MissSarahSpeaks specifically [requested](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://archiveofourown.org/comments/204027998&sa=D&ust=1547314112420000) it, so here you go. (If after reading you would like to have me remove your name because it's so cringe-worthingly bad, please just let me know, lol.) Originally posted in 2008 (edited). You can see the orig posts here:  [1](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://daniel-betty.livejournal.com/351719.html&sa=D&ust=1547314112420000)[2](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://daniel-betty.livejournal.com/352975.html%23cutid1&sa=D&ust=1547314112421000)[3](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://daniel-betty.livejournal.com/354219.html%23cutid1&sa=D&ust=1547314112421000)[4](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://daniel-betty.livejournal.com/357139.html%23cutid1&sa=D&ust=1547314112422000)[5](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://daniel-betty.livejournal.com/358571.html%23cutid1&sa=D&ust=1547314112422000)[6](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://daniel-betty.livejournal.com/360178.html%23cutid1&sa=D&ust=1547314112422000)[7](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://daniel-betty.livejournal.com/362286.html&sa=D&ust=1547314112423000)[8](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://daniel-betty.livejournal.com/363509.html%23cutid1&sa=D&ust=1547314112423000)[9](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://daniel-betty.livejournal.com/366146.html&sa=D&ust=1547314112423000)[10](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://daniel-betty.livejournal.com/368966.html%23cutid1&sa=D&ust=1547314112424000)[11](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://daniel-betty.livejournal.com/370220.html&sa=D&ust=1547314112424000)[12.1](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://daniel-betty.livejournal.com/374303.html&sa=D&ust=1547314112424000)[12.2](https://www.google.com/url?q=https://daniel-betty.livejournal.com/374548.html&sa=D&ust=1547314112425000) if you’re so inclined. Orig beta was   Survived_it_all (RomanticSoutherner on ff.net)  (fun fact- we're still friends! :D Let's hear it for Detty bringing people together!)

Claire Meade was used to "family squabbles." Call them tiffs, misunderstandings or  knock-down drag-out fights; it didn't really matter. Often in Casa de Meade, those kinds of altercations would spice things up  in a series of hideously boring days. Alex and Daniel squabbling, Daniel and Bradford... her and Bradford.... Daniel and  _Alexis_. ..

Meades were  so  very good at masking one emotion for another. Lying to themselves as well as keeping a silent front had become second nature.

Claire stood in front of the wet bar in Bradford's study staring at the gin bottle without really seeing it. Running her fingers up and down the cool condensation of the ice bucket, Alexis' words replayed themselves over and over in her head.

_ “Daniel isn't Daniel Jr.'s father. I am.” _

Claire realized that her lips were trembling and she had to force them into a straight line. This was going to kill Daniel. Just kill him. She had put Daniel through so much. How could she tell him this, too? Daniel always had a big heart, (despite his repeated failed attempts to bury it) and had accepted that DJ was his. And what about Daniel Jr.? How do you tell a teenage boy, one who recently lost his mother, that the man he thought was his father isn't? Oh...and the woman he thought was his aunt was really his father?

The logistics  of  that  conversation had Claire rubbing the bridge of her nose, trying to stave off the headache she felt rolling in.  

Her phone rang, startling her into turning away from the bar and crossing to the table she had thrown her purse on when she entered the room. The little phone rang again. The display read simply, "Betty."  Betty.  Of course. If anyone could help her figure out this mess, it was her.

* * *

 

Betty rang the doorbell and waited for the door to open. She shivered and now that she thought about it, she was that glad that she wore her bright green sweater that she had put on before she left her apartment.  Her apartment.   _Hers_!  That never failed to give her a quick zing of pride.  Beaming, Betty hitched up her bag onto her shoulder,  waited a few seconds, and rang the doorbell again.

When Claire answered it was obvious that something was wrong. Sometimes it was hard to gauge her mood right away. Either she was disappointed, or drunk, or in one of her catty, derisive moods, but usually there weren't any sign of what she was feeling on her face.  (Plastic surgery did that to a person, she supposed.)  Betty couldn't tell until she opened her mouth of what Claire Meade was feeling.  This time however, it was glaringly obvious that something was really wrong. Her eyes were red, there were large purplish bruises under her eyes, and she was biting her lip.

"Hello, Betty." Even her voice wasn't the same.

Betty blinked a few times behind her glasses. Her mind was racing. Daniel had called her a few minutes ago to ask if she wanted to come over for a dinner with him and his son to thank her for her "Nancy Drewing skills." Surely he wasn't hurt or in the hospital or anything. Alexis had been led away in handcuffs and was doing whatever it was that one did in a police station. Business as usual for the Meade offspring.  If it wasn't one of her children, what could have upset Claire so badly? Wilhelmina? A nosy reporter? Okay, probably not that. One thing the Meades knew how to do from conception was handle reporters.

"Mrs. Meade? Claire?" Betty couldn't help it if her voice squeaked. She had called Claire about an hour ago to tell her that Alexis had asked that she drop off some papers for her to sign. Betty had wanted to make sure that Claire was going to be home before she took a cab all the way out here. Now, the older woman was just staring at Betty, her beautiful face a wreck, one lone tear falling down her cheek.  Betty tilted her head and took charge. Whatever it was that was wrong, it didn't need to be discussed outside.

Betty maneuvered Claire so that she was moving back through the foyer and into the library. Betty loved this room. The smell of the books, the leather furniture, the huge fireplace that took up one whole wall on the south side... She had only been here a few times, but longed to check out some of the book titles.  But now wasn't the time. She got Claire seated on one side of the couch, and took one of her hands, chafing it to get some blood moving.

"Okay, Mrs. Meade. Can you tell me what's wrong?"

Claire's vacant eyes moved to Betty's concerned ones. "Daniel," she whispered. "Oh Betty, this is simply going to simply kill him." Betty's eyes widened.  She could hear each separate heartbeat as it thudded in her chest.  Her mind exploded in a flurry of activity. Was Claire going back to prison? Was she dying? Was  Daniel  dying?

 "What's the matter?" Even Betty's normally cheerful voice was subdued, tense with worry. "What happened?"  What was wrong? Please just say something!  Betty was shocked to find that she wanted to shake the woman to jar her out of her rigidity. "Claire?"

"D-d-d..."  Oh god. How could she even say this? It registered with Claire that Betty was going past worried and over into scared. "Daniel.  Daniel, Jr. " She finally got the name out.

Betty froze. For a moment she had completely forgotten about the boy. Her eyes drifted shut, as she pulled away from Claire, awaiting the dreadful news.

"Daniel isn't .... he isn't.... Daniel's father. There were tests. Alexis had Daniel's mail. A DNA test. Alexis....." she took a deep breath, noticing how choppy it was... as though she was about to burst into tears any moment. "Alex is. Was," She finally whispered after a second of silence.

Betty's eyes popped open. "ALEXIS?" Her mind flashed to Alexis' tall, beautiful, form being lead away by the police. She thought of Daniel's face. How excited and scared and determined he seemed to be a good father to D.J. How worried he had been about the sex that he and the caseworker had had getting out to the public; worried that would make him lose the custody battle. Claire was right. This would destroy him.

"Oh....." she whispered. Claire nodded miserably. "But... But... I'm supposed to go over there for dinner tonight. They don't know..... wait." Betty's voice hardened on the last word. "You don't expect me to be the one that tells him, do you?" She scooted even further away from Claire on the couch. Claire just looked at her, hands folded so that both her pointer fingers were pressed against her lips. Her eyes swam with tears.  "Oh.. oh no. No way. I'm nobody. I'm just his assistant. I mean, we're friends and all, but this is something that is really better coming from someone he's related to...."

Claire blinked so that the tears escaped and ran down her face.  "Betty. You know I've never asked you for anything." Hm. Well, that wasn't quite the truth. "Well, almost never. But I can. Not. Do. This. Not to him. Not after... everything." Claire sat there, back proud, head bowed and waited for Betty's reaction. She didn't mean to manipulate the younger girl. Hm. Well, that wasn't quite the truth either. She didn't mean to manipulate the younger girl in a malicious way. What she had spoken was the truth. She could not. Simply, could _not_ break her little boy's heart again. Claire knew that Betty cared for her son. She was loyal and a true friend. She wouldn't hurt Daniel. Daniel wouldn't hate her for taking away the last thing in his life that he seemed to really care for.  No, best that it came from Betty. 

"Please?"

* * *

 

Betty stood staring at the apartment door. She hadn't been back since Renee tried to kill her here, and found herself trying to sniff for some telltale hint of smoke damage. She shivered. Maybe that was why her heart was pounding. Sure, she should have known better. Betty had, after all, made the arrangements for Daniel and his son to rent another apartment with a view of the Park until this one had been redecorated and refurbished. She raised her hand to knock. Instead of smoke, she smelled... garlic? 

The door opened before her knuckles rapped on the door. Daniel stood there, face lighting up when he saw her on his doorstep. "Betty! Hey! Glad you could get here. Was there a lot of traffic? I thought you'd be..." he looked at the clock, "Well, nevermind. Dinner is almost ready. Just toss your coat over there."

Betty had to smile at the happiness on Daniel's face. Well, that and the bright fuchsia 'Kiss the Cook' apron he was wearing.

Tonight was  totally  going to suck.

Betty took off her poofy blue jacket and walked further into the room. Inside, she could smell garlic and some sort of red sauce bubbling on the stove. Daniel Jr. smiled shyly at her as he set the small table. Betty's heart broke just a little when she saw how carefully the boy was arranging flatware and folding napkins. After the incidents with the silly string it was a really nice change. She smiled back and reached out to ruffle his hair. Daniel started singing something while he went back into the kitchen.

"Hey, do you need any help in there?"

Daniel poked his head out of the doorway, smiling rather sheepishly. "Nah. If Emeril can do it, then so can I. But you can do the salad."

"Sure. I can chop vegetables with the best of them." Betty started chopping up some cucumber while Daniel puttered around the kitchen, looking strangely domestic. Both were quiet as they worked, finding nothing strange with the companionable silence. Daniel grabbed what looked like some crushed red pepper, and tossed it into the red sauce.

"BAM!"

Betty rolled her eyes. "Hilarious. And since when do you cook?" She finished the cucumber and started washing some tomatoes.

"Oh, even we Meades have to eat sometime."

"Yeah, but I don't think I've ever seen you with anything but takeout." Betty looked up at him through her bangs, curious. Daniel finished stirring the pot on the stove, and bent over to open the oven.

The knife slipped.

"Ouch!" Betty turned so that her face was not oogling her boss's behind, sucking on her pointer finger where she had accidentally sliced it. Daniel turned away from the oven at her cry and took the two steps over to her. He grabbed her wrist and tried to pry her hand away from her face. "Are you okay? How bad is it? I should have warned you that those were really sharp knives...." Daniel fairly dragged her over to the sink where he ran cold water over the cut.

Betty hissed when the water hit it. Actually, the cut wasn't as bad as it could have been. "All knives are sharp, I know that. Hey, Daniel...? " Daniel had started rummaging in a drawer near the refrigerator and emerged with a first aid kit. "Daniel?" Betty tried again, a little more loudly when he didn't respond. She shut off the water and grabbed a paper towel.

Daniel was intent on his doctoring apparatus. "Just a sec, I'll be right there. Is it bad? Do you need stitches? Do you think Daniel Jr. needs to call 911?"

He was unrolling what looked like two feet of gauze. Betty rolled her eyes, reached to his left and grabbed the small Scooby-Doo bandaid that he had scattered in his haste for the gauze. Some Neosporin was right next to it, so she quickly dabbed a little bit on the bandaid and slapped it on the cut- which had already almost stopped bleeding.

Daniel finally turned to her only to see her calmly rinsing off the knife and putting it in the kitchen sink. He glared at her when she held up the wounded finger with its bright purple bandage. "See? All better. It was my own fault. I was distracted by you-- uh... your garlic bread," she finished quickly.

"My garlic bread!!" He dropped the gauze and almost knocked Betty over in his haste to get to the oven. "Whew! It's just a little crispy. Perfect."

Betty finished the salad Daniel Jr. put on the counter, since the table was really too small for three people and food, and Betty saw to cleaning up the first-aid kit. Daniel mixed up the pasta and sauce, placed the bread in a basket, and ushered his son and his assistant into the dining room. "I'll get the wine."

Betty wasn't surprised when Daniel Jr. was given a small glass with dinner. With him being French, and Daniel being... well... Daniel, it didn't seem like such a stretch as if, oh, Justin were to slug back a  scotch or something at dinner. The three made quick work of the food. Daniel fairly beamed with pride at the way they both ate through a fairly large mountain of angel hair pasta. Betty was pleasantly surprised to note that it was quite good, too. She had just swallowed to say so when DJ's cellphone rang. Betty met Daniel's eyes very briefly and they both looked away quickly at the song.  _I Kissed a Girl_ ,  indeed. Betty bent over her pasta again knowing that if she met Daniel's eyes one more time that she would probably bust out laughing.

DJ hung up and turned to his father. "Papa, mon camarade de classe Michael m'a invité à dormir chez lui. Je peux y aller?? "

"DJ, Betty a travaillé vraiment dur pour que nous puissions passer un peu de temps ensemble. "

Daniel's eyes flicked towards Betty, who, since she didn't speak a word of French, was focused once again on her pasta.

"Oh, papa, ne sois pas bête. Elle n'est pas venue ici pour passer la soirée avec _moi_. Alors, je peux y aller ou pas?"  DJ was already wiping his face with his napkin and pushing back his chair.

"C'est d'accord. Appelle-moi quand tu arrives."  Daniel's voice was resigned, but filled with affection.

"Oh, merci papa. T'es le meilleur. En plus comme ça tu pourras rester seul avec Betty. Je l'aime bien."  DJ grinned cheekily.

Betty looked up at her name. It always sounded so pretty in French. Beet-teee. She sucked the noodle and blushed when it popped into her mouth, flinging a bit of sauce onto her nose and the table.

Daniel was giving DJ a weird look. "Good. B ye , " he said pointedly, making little shooing motions with his hands towards the younger boy. DJ grinned, grabbed his backpack and stopped to give Betty a little hug. "Thank you again for helping my Papa. You are really nice." He looked over her shoulder and made what sounded suspiciously like kissy noises at his father.

He was out the door in less than a minute.

* * *

 

Daniel took an exceptionally large gulp of wine to try and dull the blush that had sprung to his cheeks at DJ's teasing comment... Time alone with Betty indeed. He looked over at the way she was mopping up sauce from the table with her napkin. She was focused on the task, her hair falling forward enough that some of her profile was hidden. The ridiculous purple bandaid stood out against the snowy white napkin, now spotted with marinara. Daniel tried to take another gulp of wine, absently noticing that he had already finished the glass. He refilled it, topping off Betty's without asking. 

She looked up and gave him a half-grin, toned down significantly from her usual hundred mega-watt smile. It dawned on him then, that something was wrong. She had been unusually quiet all evening, which bothered him. He was her friend, and should be more in tune with what she was feeling, right? Daniel wracked his brain for something to say. He wasn't very good with this emotional stuff. Especially when it came to Betty. And... well... he refused to ask himself what exactly the reason for that was. He watched as Betty took another drink.

"Betty -- is something wrong? Don't you like garlic?" Daniel tried to joke. She stood up and crossed to the window, looking out onto the streets below. Night had fallen and the lights were reflecting gently against the glass.

Daniel had a quick flashback of him keeping her seated outside, waiting on him in the cold. God, he was so mean to her. What a stupid, immature thing to do to another human being. But-- he had made up for that, hadn't he? She had forgiven him for being such an ass, and he had... had.... had forgotten what he had just asked.

"Betty?" He gently tried again. She looked up from where she was, resting her head on the window. He was surprised to see that her eyes held a sheen of tears. Uh-oh. Daniel thought furiously for what could be wrong, other than Alexis being... well... Alexis. Surely Betty wouldn't still be upset over what had happened the other day. Daniel, on the other hand, was disgusted that Alexis had been willing to let him take the fall, but strangely proud that she had confessed to what she had done to Christina. And... he could understand how she felt. Sometimes he found himself forgetting that Christina was a person, and not just a walking womb for Wilhelmina's next step in whichever evil plan she was concocting this week. So what could it be? The Geeky Accountant and the Italian Sandwich Stallion both seemed to be non-entities for the past month.... Well, there was little in Betty's life that meant as much to her as her family. Was someone hurt?

"Um. I have something to tell you. And, I'm not really sure how to start." Betty blurted out. Daniel looked up, absently taking another sip of wine at her words. He was silent for a moment. Maybe if he got her more relaxed, or laughing or something this wouldn't be so hard for her. Betty was usually honest, almost to a fault. If she was nervous about something, then it probably had to do with him. Or his screwed-up family. Anything else she would have just told him.

Daniel gestured for her to sit down. "Here, finish your food. I have dessert. You can tell me later."

Betty sighed, and sat. "Dessert? Really?"

Daniel grinned and jumped up to clear away DJ's dishes so that Betty was sitting to his left instead of across from him. "Yep. Death by Chocolate. I didn't make this one though, I was afraid I'd be pushing it by making dinner." He set the dishes in the sink and ran some water over them.

"It was really good." Betty said, giving that funny little half-smile again. Daniel called out from the kitchen, "Really? I couldn't tell. You hardly ate!" Which caused Betty to guiltily shove another forkful of pasta in her mouth. She chewed and washed it down with another sip of wine. That wine was awfully good. "What kind of wine is this? It's really tasty," she called out, raising her voice slightly to be heard over Daniel's clattering in the kitchen.

"It's a Merlot. From France. I bought it the last time I was over there."

Betty's shoulders slumped. Everything seemed to remind her of what she had promised to tell him. But she really didn't want to ruin the night -- it was nice to see Daniel so relaxed. She took another sip, noting that her glass was empty. She quickly filled hers and Daniel's both. Maybe the alcohol would help her to relax and Daniel to not be... well... heartbroken. She sighed. Getting drunk sounded better than breaking someone's heart. She wasn't much of a drinker, though. Her head was already feeling funny.

Daniel came back holding two plates piled high with generous pieces of chocolate cake. Betty couldn't help but smile at the grin on his face. He looked so proud of himself -- and it struck her that he was doing this for her. Daniel could have just ordered out, or met her at a restaurant. But the fact that she was in his home, eating food that he cooked made her really feel appreciated. And she was willing to be distracted by chocolate. In fact, between the chocolate and the wine she could almost ignore her terrible news enough to enjoy herself.

Daniel sat down and watched Betty roll her eyes as the first bite of cake reached her taste buds. He squirmed inwardly as she moaned a little. He started to take a sip of his wine, but froze when Betty's little pink tongue came out to clean off the rest of the fork. He took a sip after a second of staring at how the tip went after each little smidge of chocolate on each tine of the fork.

_ Jesus . _

He was  so  going to hell.

It was one thing to notice idly how pretty she looked (as at the alternative fashion show with that tight, fantastic dress on.... something which was emblazoned on his mind as to Not. Think. About. Ever.) or at work when sometimes he would catch her bust into laughter and her whole face would light up until she got herself under control....but it was definitely another to be watching her mouth like that. In his apartment. 

With no one else around.

Daniel took a gulp of wine and set the glass down, shoving a bite in his mouth. He was lucky that he didn't choke on the damn thing.

Betty, completely oblivious, took another bite of cake. It... was... so... _good_. Dimly she realized that she had left off making yummy noises and was well on her way to sounding like the soundtrack to a porn movie. Her eyes popped open to see Daniel staring at her with a strange look on his face. He quickly looked down at his plate and washed down his bite with some of his drink.

Boy. It was getting a little warm in here. "Is it hot? Are you hot? I'm hot. Boy is that cake tasty. I didn't mean to go all orgasmic like that, but it's really good cake." In her head, she was telling herself to  _shut up shut up shut up_ ,  but her mouth seemed to be going on without any help from her higher brain function. "Not that I know what that sounds like, really. Although I think I heard Amanda getting crazy with some underwear model in the janitor's closet, although, come to think of it, once I rented a mov-- Um. Yeah." She managed to stick another huge bite in her mouth to shut it up. She was  not  talking about orgasms... or a lack thereof... with Daniel Meade.

Daniel raised an eyebrow. "You don't know what an orgasm sounds like?"  The words fell out of his mouth before he could stop them. Did that mean she had... had never...?

Betty quickly stood up, her chair almost falling back onto the tile. "Well, gee! Look at the time! I really should get back to my apartment. Work tomorrow and all that. I'll talk to you la..." Standing up caused her head to swim, and she pitched to the left. Fortunately (or perhaps  _un_ fortunately), Daniel managed to catch Betty without either her falling onto the table or the floor.

"You don't have to be... embarrassed. That Walter guy of yours should be embarrassed. And.. uh.. Henry." Daniel's voice had gotten deeper and softer as he looked down into Betty's eyes. Her face was bright red, either from the wine or humiliation, he wasn't sure. It wouldn't take much to kiss her. She looked so... cute. A little tipsy, and flustered, and she was so... close...

Betty was a little drunk, but not drunk enough not to realize that Daniel was holding her in his arms, and that if he just bent his head a tiny, little bit...

Daniel ghosted his lips over Betty's just softly enough that goosebumps broke out all over his body.

Oh, God.

Her lips were so... soft. He pulled away just a little, before catching his breath and kissing her again, his hands clenched on her shoulders. Daniel was shocked by the heat he felt as she opened her mouth just a little. It was his turn to moan as he deepened the kiss, his tongue dipping into her mouth... She tasted of wine and chocolate. He could feel his body start to harden as her tongue crept out to meet his. He explored her mouth, smiling a little to himself amongst all the heat at the feel of her braces. He was holding most of her weight as she slumped into his body. He turned into the embrace, wanting her to feel him, feel how much he wanted her...

... when she pulled abruptly away.

Daniel felt everything in him come to a screeching halt as swiftly as if a record had been scratched to a stop.

Oh, _shit._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N:
> 
>  ~~My apologies to anyone who actually speaks/reads French. This is the best I could do with 3 years of the language.... fifteen years ago... and google translate. :D~~ Guess what! Someone was able to help me fix this cringe-worthy attempt at French... thank god. 
> 
>  
> 
> 1) "Papa, mon camarade de classe Michael m'a invité à dormir chez lui. Je peux y aller?" Papa, Michael from school wants me to spend the night. Is that okay?  
>  2) "DJ, Betty a travaillé vraiment dur pour que nous puissions passer un peu de temps ensemble." DJ. Betty worked really hard so that we're able to spend some time together.  
>  3) "Oh, papa, ne sois pas bête. Elle n'est pas venue ici pour passer la soirée avec moi. Alors, je peux y aller ou pas??"Oh, Papa, don't be stupid. She didn't come here to spend the night with me! So, can I go or not?  
>    
> 4)"C'est d'accord. Appelle-moi quand tu arrives." Yes. Call me when you get there.  
> 5) "Oh, merci papa. T'es le meilleur. En plus comme ça tu pourras rester seul avec Betty. Je l'aime bien." Aw, Papa, you're the best. Besides, it's great that you get to spend some time alone with Betty. I like her.


	2. Chapter 2

Betty pushed hard at Daniel's chest.   
  
He was so surprised that he let go too fast, and the vertigo from the sudden release caused her to lose her balance.  Daniel tried to grab at her again to try to break her fall.  It was as if he could see it happening a split second before anything actually happened...her lurch back, then her trying to throw out her hands to regain her balance. Her left hand knocked over the wine bottle which shattered against her dessert plate.   
  
He could almost see each, separate shard of glass as it fell and twisted through the air.  
  
The way she over-corrected, and pitched backwards, quickly enough that when he grabbed for her, his hand just slid over her collarbone. He was able to catch hold of her B necklace, but the motion of her body caused the delicate chain to snap. She fell, knocking her head against the chair, onto the glass and remnants from the wine bottle and onto the floor.  
  
Daniel stared down at her, horrified for about a split second.  
  
" _Betty!_ " Oblivious to the glass, he knelt down and tried to slap her cheek. There was no response. "Betty, dammit!" Well, swearing at her didn't work either.   
  
He reached under her and picked her up to set her onto the couch. As he set her down, he noticed her eyelids flutter.  Was that a trick of the light? He thought he heard a small pain sound, but otherwise was unresponsive. With his hands shaking, he fumbled for his cellphone. He felt everything in his stomach start to churn as he saw the amount of blood on his shirt and hand.   
  
He almost dropped his phone twice before flipping it open and dialing 911.   
  
It seemed to take an indescribable amount of time for someone to answer the phone.  Daniel sat on the arm of the couch, gingerly so that he wouldn't jar her any further. A small line of blood was trickling down the leather upholstery.   
  
"911. What is the nature of your emergency?"   
  
"You have to hurry! She fell, and she's bleeding! There was glass and it's all over me, and please you have to get here!"  
  
"Sir? Sir? I see that you are on a cell phone. We are sending an ambulance. I will stay on the line with you until...."  
  
Daniel interrupted. "I moved her. Oh shit was I supposed to move her? She's so pale. There was glass... it was on the floor and I moved her." His panicked rush drowned out the lady on the phone.   
  
"Sir, calm down. You have to calm down. I want you to feel her pulse on her neck. Can you feel a pulse?" The 911 attendant's voice went from calm to calm and authoritative.   
  
Daniel reached his right hand, the one not holding the phone to feel for a pulse. He still grasped the B necklace in his fist. He bit his lip and shoved it into the pocket of his jeans. He laid his first two fingers onto her carotid artery.   
  
He couldn't feel anything.  
  
As if he were observing himself from across the room, Daniel heard the muffled thud as the phone hit the floor. He heard each ping! as the little pearl buttons from the collar of her dress hit the floor. Her white, unadorned bra he left alone, only because it seemed to have a front clasp that didn't interfere with him putting his ear to her chest to listen for her breathing.   
  
He heard each in drawn breath and felt as she exhaled.   
  
The relief almost made him dizzy. Daniel scooped up the phone, hearing the muffled squawking of the attendant. "Oh.... oh, she's breathing!" If his voice kind of broke in the middle, he was sure she wouldn't hold it against him.  
  
"Okay, sir? Calm down, please.  Have you been drinking? Was there an argument?" Daniel caught the reflection of the ambulance lights in the large windows. He hung up the phone and just sat there for a second, stunned. 

There wasn't a lot of blood, but he decided to risk turning her so that he could maybe stop the bleeding. He took off his shirt, balling it up and placing it under her shoulder. The red was shocking against the green of her sweater. Like a gruesome Christmas. He could tell that the bleeding was much slower now, but put his shirt there anyway.

What in God's name had just happened? Daniel made a strange, strangled sound and covered his face with his hands.

In some weird way, it was almost funny, possibly in a parallel universe. Only in his life could he kiss his assistant, obviously the one woman on the planet that he couldn't have without a snap of his fingers, who incidentally wanted to get away from him so badly that she managed to cut herself AND knock herself out in her haste...

"Mmm?" There was some movement from the couch.

"Betty?"  Daniel focused on her as she brought her hand up to push her hair out of her face.  "Just lie still. There's an ambulance on its way."

"An ambulance? I don't need an ambulance. What happened? Why am I... _ouch_!" Betty sucked in her breath, just as there was a pounding on the door.

Daniel jumped up, avoiding the mess of glass on the floor, and let them in. He was relieved to see the two paramedics come in, but was surprised to see two officers following them.

Betty was sitting up on the couch, trying to hold the top of her dress closed, wincing at the cut on her back, trying to rub her head, and peek at the shallow cut on her hand, all without meeting Daniel's gaze.

* * *

 

Betty Suarez was not what one would call a good liar.  So, when the paramedic asked her what happened, she was surprised to hear herself answer, "I don't remember," which wasn't precisely the truth exactly.

Okay, so there was no way in hell that one second of these past 20 insane minutes would ever fade from her memory. Being kissed by... Daniel! Then her stupid panicky brain kicking in, then her spectacular fall, managing to break about twelve hundred objects on her graceful way down... when she bonked her head on the chair, she had been stunned for a moment. It seemed easier to just play possum while Daniel swung her up and onto the couch, and phoned 911.

Then things sort of went crazier. The memory of Daniel's panic on the phone made her feel like crap. When he couldn't find a pulse, (not a shock since he didn't have his hand on the right spot) and had ripped open her dress, she had been shocked speechless. Again. Passivity seemed the best course of action. Death would really be preferable unless the floor could swallow her up until her consciousness kicked in.....

"Mr. Meade, can you explain why your wife appears to have been assaulted?"

One of the police officers had cornered Daniel near the entertainment center and was obviously questioning him. There had been one of those strange moments that sometimes happen in a crowded room when everyone shuts up at the same time, and one voice seems inordinately loud. Betty had been watching while one of the techs shone a penlight from one eye to the other, but the aggressive tone of the man questioning Daniel's voice spurred her into action.

"Wait. Officer! I wasn't assaulted. He didn't hurt me at all! You have the wrong idea." She tried to push away the paramedics, which caused a flurry of activity as everyone spoke at once.

"Ma'am, we have this under control-"

"Look, Mr. Meade. Just answer my question."

"Hey, you guys leave her alone!"

"Young Lady... you really should sit down until we're done looking everything over-"

"Yes, Rita, I'll call you back. I told you never to call me on this phone--!"

 _"_ **FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, WOULD YOU ALL SHUT _UP_**?!?!"

You could have heard a pin drop.

Betty took a deep breath, putting her hand up to her head as a bright burst of pain made her grit her teeth. " _Officer,_  I am fine. I am his assistant, not his wife. He has been trying to help me. He is kind of over-protective since his last girlfriend had um…some...things to work through. I haven't been assaulted!"

Betty inwardly gritted her teeth.

"I remember very clearly that he was laying his head against my chest to try to listen for my heartbeat. The rest of the stuff is.. um...fuzzy (she faltered again while her brain screamed   _Betty! Lying to the POLICE is a CRIME_!) but I'm sure that I tripped or something. I'm not used to these heels, you know."

Everyone looked at her shoes and their 1/8 inch heel. Betty took a deep breath. "No crime has been committed. Thank you."  The police officer gave Daniel a dead fish look.  He took her name and address and made it clear that he would be following up with her in a few days.

The paramedic that wasn't on his cellphone informed her that she had a possible concussion and would need some stitches in her back. 

"I'll drive her." Daniel spoke up for the first time since Betty's shout. Betty's eyes met his.

"Are you sure, ma'am? We are kind of here already. You might as well come in the ambulance with us."

Betty gave him a look. "Are you kidding? My boss is a nice guy, but the insurance  _sucks_. I'll pay for a cab before I go in one of those things. Psssh! Five hundred dollars for a trip to the hospital! You gotta be kidding me."

"I will drive her." Daniel said. There was a tic near his left eyebrow. Betty could see him grind his teeth. He crossed to the door, opening it again and grinning falsely at the people in his apartment. His message was pretty clear.

Betty smiled at them and nodded.

Finally, they shrugged and left.

Betty sank to the couch gratefully. "Whew. What a night." 

"I'll get my keys." Daniel's voice was strange, subdued. 

* * *

 

In the end, they thought it best to take a cab. Daniel tossed on a shirt and rang up from his phone, then tossed Betty a shirt to cover up the mess of her dress. They didn't speak while she eased it over her sore shoulder to hide her damaged dress.  Betty kept sneaking little glances at him from under her eyelashes as they rode the elevator down to the ground floor so that the doorman could open the cab door.

"Watch your head," he finally said.  They slid into the back seat and Daniel told the cabbie which hospital to go to.

"Daniel, I'm uh, really sorry about all this." Betty finally ventured timidly.

Daniel turned his head so quickly that he was surprise he didn't get whiplash. "None of this was you're fault. You... er. You really don't remember what happened?"

 _Before or after I found out what your mouth tasted like?_  

But she couldn't say _that_.

"No." Her answer was subdued. "But I didn't mean to cause so much trouble." That much was true, at least. When she thought about this later she was fairly certain she would lose feeling in her extremities due to all the blushing she'd be doing at the humiliating events of the evening. 

"Six-fifty," the cabbie said.

Daniel gave him a ten and they slid out of the cab.

After the events of the evening, the hospital was anticlimactic.  Betty needed three stitches on her back from a small piece of glass which had been buried when she fell back onto the floor. She had a few superficial (yet incredibly painful) cuts on her arm, and one on the fleshy part of her hand. Her knock on the head had given her a mild concussion. She was given an antibiotic and told to take some aspirin.

The only snag was when the doctor advised that she be woken up every two hours... just to be safe.

"But I live alone!" Betty blurted out.

The doctor looked from Betty to Daniel to Betty and back to Daniel again.

Daniel opened his mouth then closed it and then opened it again.

"You can stay at my place if you want."  He cleared his throat from the sudden blockage that got in the way of his words.

The doctor seemed to think that was that, signing the release papers with an illegible flourish, moving onto the next ER patient. 

* * *

 

Again, silence on the way back. Daniel knew that he should probably say something, but couldn't think of what to say, which for him was a rarity.  What an utter, fucking mess. She did it again, stuck up for him. Went to bat for him,  looked damn fierce going after that cop...for him.  Betty was continually proving herself, always,  _always_ doing whatever she could do to help him out. And what did he do? Used her…constantly. He relied on her so much that in the two years that they had worked together he usually started his day with a phone call or text to Betty to make sure he wasn't forgetting some early morning meeting.

When the cab pulled up in front of his building, the silence had gotten to be too much. "Betty?" Daniel spoke gently.

A soft snore was his only reply.

Great. He'd been antagonizing his heart out, and she was off in dreamland. Perfect. 

"Betty?" He reached out and gently touched her shoulder, "Time to get out of the cab. Come on, you can go to sleep upstairs."

Betty repeated something less than friendly.  There was a snerk from the front of the cab. Daniel rolled his eyes and tried again. "Come on, Sleeping Beauty. Let's get you settled."

Betty woke up enough that she managed to get upstairs.

"Look, you'll feel better if you take a shower. I'm sure I have something you can sleep in. You take the bed. I'll take the couch... I don't want you to worry about anything."

Betty was exhausted enough to sleepily mumble something and manage to stand under the hot water in the shower.

Daniel stripped his bed (It was the housekeeper's day off and really...the sheets weren't very clean.) and found another t-shirt and a pair of stretchy shorts for Betty to wear. He knocked on the door and listened as the water shut off. 

"Erm, I'm going to just set these here on the sink. There's a towel in the cabinet. Just stay in the shower for a second and I'll be out of your hair." Daniel squeezed his eyes so tightly shut that he was surprised that he didn't sprain something, opened the door by feel and set her things on the counter.  He shut the door rather louder than he intended, but he wanted to make sure that she knew he wasn’t ogling her or anything.

After that, he went to the dining nook off of the kitchen and started picking up pieces of glass off of the floor.

How could she not remember?

Every time he looked even near her mouth, he relived it.  Daniel cursed under his breath and he picked up the rest of the glass. Hmm. He supposed he should run a vacuum over the floor just to be safe.  He wouldn’t want anyone to cut themselves. DJ could always come back early.

It took him ten minutes to find the damn thing, plug it in, and figure out how to turn it on. How pathetic was that? He vacuumed; left it plugged into the wall, and finished cleaning up the mess on the floor. He was kneeling in front of his couch, scrubbing off the dried blood when he heard the bathroom door open, and Betty come padding out. She came out to the living room and stood uncertainly in the hallway. 

"Daniel? Um, would it be okay if I had a drink of water?”

Daniel looked up from his scrubbing and forgot what he was going to say. He was used to seeing Betty covered from head to toe (except for the leather outfit she wore to keep her job when they first met) in any season. You noticed garish colors, fabrics and patterns almost before you noticed her. Her body was always quite modestly and effectively hidden with tights, long-sleeve blouses, and high collars.

Now, she stood shyly in his hallway, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. The t-shirt was long, but on her, it was more form-fitting than he realized. It clung to her curves. The shorts were the stretchy mesh, athletic kind and came down to mid thigh.

Daniel’s eyes widened and he jerked his gaze back down to his couch. “Yeah, there’s some Evian in the fridge. Help yourself.” Did he squeak? Was his voice too high-pitched there? _Oh, God I sound like Mickey Mouse._

She padded by him, and into the kitchen. He kept his eyes resolutely on his couch…. For about two seconds before good manners lost to eternal horniness.

Daniel would have whimpered if he had had enough spit left in his mouth to do so. She had just opened the refrigerator door, and was in the process of twisting off the cap. His eyes went up… from her bare feet, up her calves…and stalled on her rear end.

_HolysweetJesus._

He caught her starting to turn, and jumped up, glad that he was wearing baggy jeans. He felt like a creep. And a kid with a crush. Daniel huffed a quick, silent breath and resolved to stop sexually harassing his assistant, even if it was just in his own head. 

“’M sleepy….”She twisted the cap back onto the bottle, then raised it to her sore head. The movement caused the t-shirt to slide over her skin, and stretch just a little more over her left breast.

_Shower. A cold one. An **Arctic**  one. Then a restful evening on his lumpy couch. Get it together, moron. You are her boss. She is your employee. A Meade never jumps an employee in their kitchen. A Meade never jumps an employee in their kitchen. A Meade never…_

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N… How dare canon get in the way of my fanfic? Some of the events in 3x04 ‘Betty Suarez Land will show up… just differently. ALSO, BEWARE THERE’S NAUGHTY STUFF IN THIS CHAPTER. Thanks to [info]x_rose_tyler_x for the Spanish and for survived_it_all for the, once again, terrific beta. 
> 
> *************

The leather on the couch made a rude sound when Daniel tried to get comfortable. The alarm clock that he had brought onto the coffee table to make sure Betty woke up every two hours glowed cheerfully. 3:00…3:14…..   
  
Daniel turned again so that his arms were behind his head. The sheet slid uncomfortably against his chilled skin.   
  
It had been a  _really_ cold shower.  
  
He frowned.  _Okay. This was ridiculous_. It was just a kiss.  _A freaking hot kiss._  He kissed women all the time.  _True_. It was just something that happened.  _Hmph._ Okay, it didn’t "just" happen, but it was certainly no big deal that he had kissed what amounts to a simple secretary.  _Sure. You ask all of the ‘help’ over for a dinner. Why just last week you and your limo driver were bent over that table while DJ went to his friend’s to study._  That’s not fair!  _Oh, bite me. Be honest, Daniel. This isn’t just "some secretary." This is Betty._ He didn’t think about Betty that way!  _Oh, absolutely. That’s why most of your "dates" have become progressively more brunette over the past two years."_ Hey. Wilhelmina says Brunette is the new Blonde.  _Riiii-iiight._  It’s perfectly normal to have the occasional risque thought about people you work with.  _Uh-huh. Occasional?_ Occasional!  _Face it. You want her. Still. She’s just over there in your bedroo-"_  
  
The alarm went off, causing Daniel to jump almost straight up off of the couch, like a cat. His heart pounded as he leaned over and slammed his hand down on the alarm clock.  
  
He kicked off the sheet and spent at least a minute trying to get up off the couch. He stomped into Betty- no,  _his_  bedroom and rudely flipped on a light.   
  
Betty blinked open her eyes. "Da-aaaan-iel?" She yawned mid-syllable, reaching over for her glasses. They slid off the table and onto the floor. She rolled her eyes, pushed back her hair and struggled to sit up among all the pillows Daniel had piled into the bed. She looked so disoriented trying to sit up, squinting from the bright light, and looking around for him that he felt immediately guilty.  
  
"Hey sorry. Let me get the light." He flipped it back off. "How’s your head?"  
  
"’S fine. I’m going back to sleep now." She flopped back down and buried back under the covers.  _His_ covers. He tried manfully not to resent that.  
  
"Okay. Goodnight." He walked back to his couch and lay back down, sighing. He reset the alarm clock for 5:30, grabbed the sheet from where the silk had slid down off onto the floor, and tried to make himself as comfortable as possible.  
  
The dream started innocently enough. They were working late in the conference room, with mock-ups spread out all over half of the table, and take-out spread all over the other side. Betty was sprawled out on a chair, with her legs tossed up over one of the arms, and her head tilted back with her hair falling back almost onto the floor. She was tapping her pen against her mouth, lost in thought.  
  
"I’m not sure. I just don’t see how sticking her in Los Angeles is going to scream couture. Daniel," The pen tapped against her braces. "This is New York  _City_ , the most amazing place on the planet. I mean, there’s a reason that MODE is here and not … well…not someplace else. Is there any of that gyro left?" She swung around by kicking one of her legs, and pushed the chair over to the table, where her spinning had moved it a little out of the way.   
  
"Yeah, but Alexis wants sand and sun and muscled beach Adonises….."   
  
And then somehow she was in his arms. Kissing, and no one was around except for them, and it was so easy to help her hop up onto the conference table. The kiss changed, becoming hotter and more insistent. Betty’s hands slid down his sides to rest on his hips, which she jerked on so that he was pressed right up against her heat. They both moaned at the contact. Her skirt had hiked up enough that she could spread her legs and wrap them around his waist. Daniel groaned as she did something wicked with her tongue to his ear and…   
  
…. and rolled off the couch. 

  
"God _damni_ t! Ouch!" He froze when he heard what sounded like his bedsprings creak. Oh yeah. That’s just what he needed. For her to come out here and see him sprawled like an idiot on his floor, hard as a rock, with his dick poking up through the hole in his boxers. Hell, maybe he could start the wave or something, wave with his hands and then with his….  
  
He froze as he heard her turn over, but had to smile a little when he heard a very light snore from the vicinity of his bedroom.   
  
Daniel wasn’t sure how it was possible to be turned on by someone and think they were just so darn cute at the same time. This was certainly out of his experience. Ever.  
  
He maneuvered off of the couch and towards the bathroom. He moved in the dark, padding barefoot without the need of light, familiar enough with the layout of his apartment that he didn’t really need it. He shut the bathroom door and locked it. He had a lamp on the counter, and turned that on rather than the bright 100-watt bulbs that were over his vanity.  
  
He put both hands onto his marble countertop and leaned forward as if he were going to kiss the mirror. Daniel Meade. 6’3, 32 years old, trust-fund baby, handsome without being too showy. Of course the trust fund was gone now, but since Betty had set up a direct deposit from his paycheck into a savings account, he felt a little better about that at least. Not like so much of a loser.  _Of course, you had to have Betty set that up for you and explain direct deposits and routing numbers and--_

Daniel’s gaze flicked down his reflected hairless chest, following the small line of hair that trailed from his navel and disappeared behind the bulge of his grey pinstriped boxers. He put his own hands on his hips  - _the feel of her small hands pulling his hips into her body_ \- He dropped his shorts and stepped into the shower, leaving them in a puddle on the floor. He smelled the sharp tangy smell of his body wash. Betty. God, she was even here in his shower. Why was this any different from one of the thou... well,  _hundreds_  of other women who had showered after spending the night? But he knew that she had used his shampoo, his body wash and his shower. She had been naked in here just long enough ago that the shower was only just barely wet.  
  
And it was driving him crazy.  
  
He reached for the control, and hot water blasted out of his shower. He turned so it was hitting his back, and just stood there, letting the steam fill the small space of glass and marble. When his skin got used to the temperature, he just turned it up a little higher. It didn’t take long to wash the gel and other hair products out of his hair.   
  
The steam was thick; making the space in the shower look fog-like. He didn’t use a loofah or a wash cloth or anything as plebeian as that. Just a dollop of body wash on his hand slapping it onto his chest. He washed himself, rubbing small circles onto his skin. Bubbles sprung forth, releasing their scent. Daniel closed his eyes and tried to put himself back into his dream. His hand closed over himself firmly, squeezing just a little. He began to move his hand, back and forth, rubbing just the thumb of his right finger over the head…  
   
_…her tongue was doing something illegal to his ear, sending shivers down his spine. His hands were busy, trying to get her little suit jacket off, trying to get her out all that fabric so that he could feel her skin next to his Daniel’s head fell back as she kissed down his jaw line, rubbing her face against the stubble there._

 __  
His hand tightened a little…wrist moving a little quicker, the bubbles and the heat and the wet of the shower all blending together for a delicious friction…  
  
_Her hands moving now, on his belt buckle, the only sound in the room their heavy breathing and the metallic zip of his zipper unfastening. Daniel’s own hands pushed up her skirt, running his hands up and down along the top of her thighs…._  
  
He bit down hard on his lip, the small pain making him feel the other the sensations more…. 

  
_His hands meet at the juncture of her thighs, where frustrated at the thick tights she was wearing, he cursed under his breath and just ripped them so he could get at her… get into her… feel her own heat and wetness and…_  
  
His hips jerked  as he came. He had to throw out his other arm so that he wouldn’t fall when the strength left his knees.  
  
Daniel stood there for a second, heartbeat racing, back arched just a little while he tried to catch his breath. He turned his body to rinse off everything, then shut off the water; He pushed back the glass door, and stepped gingerly out of the tub. As he wrapped the huge terrycloth, fluffy towel around his waist, he was very careful not to meet his own gaze in the mirror.  
  
Five minutes later, he was fast asleep. 

* * *

  
"Wake up Sleeping Beauty." Daniel’s voice pulled at her out of sleep. That and the cup of coffee he wafted under her nose.  
  
She stretched, winced as the stitches pulled, then reached blearily for the coffee as it floated in front of her face. "Ohhhh. I love you for this."  
  
Betty was so focused on getting her hands awake enough to clutch the coffee cup that she didn’t see Daniel jerk as if he had been burned.  
  
He sat down next to her on the bed. She gave him a dirty look when the coffee sloshed in the cup. Sure, Starbucks always had those lovely lids on them, but it would be criminal to waste…..  
  
Hey.  
  
"Wait, you’ve been up already?"  
  
Daniel’s grin became a trifle frozen. "I thought it would be nice to get you coffee and a bagel for a change." 

  
Daniel’s words caused her sleep-fogged brain to pop into wakefulness. All the events of last night came flooding back.  _The kiss. The meeting with Claire… DJ. The kiss. Her lies. The police. The hospital. The kiss. Sleeping in Daniel’s bed._  
  
Betty’s fingers trembled a little on her coffee cup. They were silent for a minute while each sipped the hot, fragrant liquid.  
  
"Daniel? There’s something I need to tell you about yesterday."  
  
Daniel jerked his head up and stared at her.  _Did he look... scared?_  And for a moment, it occurred to her to just tell him that she had fibbed about her highly convenient amnesia, but…no., he hadn’t really mentioned it.  
  
It was pretty obvious to her what had happened. Daniel had been drinking that Merlot pretty heavily. He was drunk… and she was. Well…convenient. She probably humiliated him. Betty couldn’t blame him for not bringing it up. Nothing on this Earth would be more pathetic than Betty Suarez throwing herself at Daniel Meade.  
  
"Tell me?" Daniel sipped his coffee calmly as if he sat with his assistant in bed every day.  
  
_Wait…._  
  
"Um, I’m not the best at keeping secrets"  _Liar, liar pants on fire_. But, your mom uh. Your mom…. She told me something Daniel." Betty took a deep breath.  _Oh jeez_ , how she was dreading this. But he had to know. 

  
Daniel could see that Betty was upset. He was relieved in a perverse way. She was going to confess that she remembered the kiss ( _It was JUST a kiss why the hell was he so freaking obsessed over it?!)_  and he could tell her that he couldn’t stop thinking about eith….   
  
"It’s about DJ…Daniel Jr."  
  
Her words came out in a rushed whisper. It took Daniel a moment to respond.   
  
"—What?" He cocked his head to the left and looked at her. Betty was sitting Indian-style on his bed, with her back up against the headboard. Blankets covered her to her waist. She was hunched over, her hands cradling the coffee cup against the bed. Her hair was messed up, but she still had her head tilted so that the long brown tresses hid her face.  
  
"Claire told me before I came over last night," Betty started to speak. Her voice was rough and quite unlike her normal tones. "Alexis had a bunch of your mail routed to her. I guess she had seen the results of the paternity test. She told Claire right before they took her to the police station." Betty stopped and took a deep breath before she started to cry. Maybe it would be better to just spit it out… like ripping off a band-aid.   
  
"I’m not DJ’s father." Daniel’s voice was harsh in the aftermath of Betty’s words.  
  
Betty turned her head so fast that a few strands of hair whipped him in the face. They stared at each other for a moment. Time stopped. Neither could have said how long they sat there.   
  
From the other room, there was the sound of a ringing phone.   
  
Betty cringed, recognizing Hilda’s ringtone. She turned and bent over the edge of the bed to scoop up her glasses, then rolled the rest of the way off the bed and ran out to the living room where she had left her bag last night. She got there just in time for Hilda to hang up.  
  
She sighed, hitting speed dial, on auto-pilot, her brain still swimming with Daniel’s comment. Wait, was he guessing? Just filling in the blank left from the beginning of her confession? Or did he know? How could he  _know_?  
  
"Betty!" Hilda’s voice was irate… and a little worried. "I just let myself into your apartment. And guess what? You’re not here! And just where the hell are you at seven-thirty on a Saturday morning. Did you forget??" 

  
"Uh…oh, no, I didn’t forget. Something just came up with Daniel and…"   
  
Hilda interrupted. "Where  _are_  you Betty? You know we have to be there by eight!"  
  
Betty was in the process of hightailing it back to Daniel’s bedroom where she had left her clothes from yesterday. She started stuffing them into her purse, glad that it was big enough to hold three ostriches and a pregnant elephant. No self-respecting girl from Jackson Heights would ever be seen with anything less.  "I can make it. Look, I just need you to grab some clothes for me…and um…underwear too."  
  
" _ELIZABETH ROSILITA SUAREZ!! WHAT THE_ **HELL**  DO YOU MEAN -BRING YOU UNDERWEAR?!"  
  
Betty jerked the phone away from her ear. It was possible that small dogs in New Jersey were now deaf from the decibel that Hilda had reached.   
  
Daniel’s lips twitched. "Elizabeth?" He said, mildly.   
  
Betty glared and pointed a finger at him. "You, shut it." She mouthed. She drew her finger across her neck, glaring significantly at him. On the phone, Hilda was still going off.   
  
She had always had this amazing ability to screech at full volume without anything in her throat becoming sore. When Betty didn’t respond, she launched into Spanish. "¿Te estás riendo de mí? ¿Daniel? ¿Qué te dijo ese enano hijo de perra? ¿Tengo que llamar a la policía? ¡Puedo llamar a uno de los amigos de Santos para que vengan y le rompan las putas rodillas! ¿Está ahí? ¿Está ahí Betty? ¡Déjame hablar con ese bastardo pervertido!"   
  
"Um, Hil? Uh.. Hilda.  _Hilda_. HIL-DA. Stop! It’s not what you’re thinking. Now calm down….. Speak to Daniel?"  _Nuh-huh. No way in the holiest of hells._ "He already left. I’ll explain when I see you. Now, g'bye. And don’t forget some socks!"   
  
She hung up and blew her bangs out of her face with a huff of irate breath. Thank God Hilda was at her place and not her father’s house. She could just imagine him showing up here with a baseball bat. Daniel was staring at her with a carefully blank expression on his face.  
  
"Alright. As you may have guessed, I need to go. My head hurts like hell and my stitches itch, thank you for asking." Betty stood there with her hands on her hips, clutching her bag in one hand and the phone in the other.  
  
"Now you have three minutes to explain exactly what you meant by that. You said, "’I’m not DJ’s father. How did you...?"’ Her bare foot tapped impatiently against the floor.  
  
Daniel sighed. He knew this mood.  
  
"How did I know? Simple. When I requested the test, and didn’t get a response, I asked them to fax me the results. I’ve… known for awhile now."   
  
Betty looked at him, eyebrows drawing together in a glare. She had to bite her cheek so that she didn’t say any of the things she was thinking. Instead, she turned on her heel and left the apartment, slamming the door behind her.  
  
Daniel squinted up at the ceiling.  _Four…Three…Two…_

The door opened.  He heard the sound of stomping bare feet towards the couch… then the click of heeled feet back to the door. Then his front door slammed again.  
  
Daniel smirked.   
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/.N. Betty is a nickname for Elizabeth, and ‘Rosa’ was her mom’s name. Hilda is overly protective of her little sis. *shrug* It sounded good to me! 
> 
> (btw here's the Spanish: "Are you fucking kidding me? Daniel??? What did that slimy son of a bitch do to you? Do I need to call the cops? I can call one of Santos' friends to come and break his fucking kneecaps.” 
> 
> I can see Hilda dropping the f-bomb a couple of times if she thought Betty was hurt.... right? Maybe?


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure this counts as a TW- but there is a transgender character in this chapter, and her brother calls her by the wrong gender on purpose to be a dick (more of a sibling thing than a hate thing) and some homophobic language from an older man towards his son.

When the cab pulled up to the curb, Betty sat there a moment before paying the driver and sliding over to open the back door. Hilda was standing by the door of the medical building. She didn’t look happy. In fact, Betty couldn’t help but notice how progressively  _less_  happy the look on her face got as she got a look at Betty’s appearance.

Betty didn’t need a mirror. She could picture it all perfectly: The world’s worse documented case of bed-head from falling into an exhausted sleep with wet hair. Poufy bags under her eyes from lack of sleep with a small bruise on her temple from where she hit her head last night. The stitches she couldn’t see, but the cut on her hand stung painfully and looked kind of gruesome in the early morning light. The outfit was a real looker---shorts and a t-shirt that obviously weren’t hers, her heels from yesterday, worn over bare feet. (Betty couldn’t handle the thought of putting on day-old tights.) Her blue coat, as large as it was, couldn’t hide the fact that she had had one hell of a night.

She held up one hand to stem the flood of questions she could see building behind the outrage in Hilda’s eyes. “Hilda, I know. But I have eight minutes until my appointment, and I can’t go in looking like this. I promise that I’m okay and Daniel didn’t do anything wrong and that I’ll explain everything as soon as I can, okay?” Betty let all the worry and hurt and exhaustion she was feeling come through in her voice.

Hilda’s lips compressed into a thin line, but she nodded. “I have your stuff. There’s a bathroom near the receptionist.”

The two sisters walked into the restroom. Hilda looked under the doors of all the stalls, and she and Betty waited while the lady next to the handicapped stall finished her business and left.

“Ew! She didn’t wash her hands.” Hilda said it just loud enough as the door swung shut that the lady surely heard it. Once the door was shut, Hilda locked it, turned on her heel, and glared in the direction of Betty.

Betty stripped off her coat and stood there in Daniel’s clothes. She rummaged through the bag Hilda had brought and took her goodies into the stall. She took her feet out of her shoes, stripped, and put on the thick socks Hilda had picked out along with.the fresh under garments, jeans, a turtleneck and one of her favorite sweaters. She had to balance a little to get her tennis shoes on, but when she finished, she felt about three hundred times better. She came out of the stall to find Hilda standing there with a hairbrush and her tooth brush with a dab of toothpaste on it.

“Spill.” Her tone left no room for argument.

So Betty did, talking through a vigorous brushing of her teeth. Hilda worked behind her, with a wet brush and deft fingers to pin up Betty’s hair into a bun on the back of her neck. She knew that if she left her hair down she’d look more like a poodle than a person after sleeping on wet hair. She even let Hilda spray her hair with a travel bottle of hairspray to try to minimize the flyaways.

It was a relief to speak out loud about everything that she had gone through, everything she was feeling, and everything she was worried about. Hilda was surprisingly quiet, and then spoke for the first time since Betty had started her tale.

“O...kay." She sighed. "We’ll have to worry about all that another time. But don't worry. None of it was all  _that_ bad. Are you ready?”

Her gaze met Betty’s in the mirror.

Betty grinned, all at once ridiculously excited about her appointment. The two women gathered up Betty’s things and stowed them back in the knapsack Hilda had brought with her. Hilda unlocked the door, gave the woman standing there a  _drop dead l_ ook and went out with Betty.

The receptionist gave Betty a smile, showing no trace of noticing what she had looked like when she came in. “Good morning. How can I help you?”

Betty’s grin got even wider. “I’m Betty Suarez. I’m here for my appointment.”

The receptionist checked her day book. “Ah, yes. Time to remove the braces, huh? How exciting. Have a seat over there and I’ll let the doc know you’re here.”

* * *

 

The small column was almost buried at the bottom of page 6.

> _Daniel Meade, playboy and recently reinstated Editor of MODE Magazine was spotted during the wee hours of Saturday morning at St. Francis’ Emergency Room. He had an unnamed woman, reported to be blood spattered, in tow. According to sources, there had been some sort of domestic quarrel at Meade’s place of residence earlier in the evening, but no charges have as yet been filed. Meade was later spotted escorting this woman back up to his residence. One can only hope that the remainder of the evening was spent in more pleasant pursuits._

Accompanying the column was a small, blurry photo of Daniel with a protective arm around someone in a poufy, sky blue coat, being helped out of a taxi.

The well-manicured hands crumpled the newspaper into a tight, furious ball. It was flung across the room, striking the mantle of the fireplace hard enough to knock over the photo in its glass frame, sending it crashing to the floor.

* * *

 

Monday morning, Daniel was on his way into the Meade building, attention on his phone when he heard his name being called from behind him. He turned to see Alexis hurrying towards him, briefly thought about running in the other direction, but stopped and waited politely for her to catch up.

_\--Hi. Do you want onion, raisin or everything? Out of plain bagels. –_

He texted back:

_\--Surprise me. How’s the head?—_

“Daniel. Thanks for waiting.” She stood there awkwardly as Daniel ignored her for a minute to hit send. “Least I could do for my big brother.”

Okay, so he wasn’t in a great mood.

He missed Alexis’s flinch when he turned to walk to the elevators. His phone buzzed.

_\--I’m fine. Cya 5 min.—_

Daniel found himself smiling for the first time that morning.

Alexis caught up to him in the elevator, and pushed the button for the doors to close. The two siblings ignored each other for the better part of the first six floors, before Alexis pushed the elevator stop. Daniel rolled his eyes, leaned forward, and pushed the button again so that the elevator continued its ascent. Alexis slapped his hand out of the way and pushed it again. Daniel slapped her hand with a little more force.  _Slap! Smack!_  They were batting at each other’s hands for Button Supremacy when Daniel noticed that the doors had slid open and people were staring at them oddly.

He sucked in a breath at the sharp jab from an elbow to his kidney. Being more mature, he stepped on Alexis’s Jimmy Choos, and shoved her out of the way with his body. No one standing out in the hall chose to get in the elevator, and the doors slid shut. Daniel guarded the controls with his body, like a hockey player protecting a goal.

“Damnit! Danny, I need to talk to you!” Alexis looked at him, angry blue eyes filling up with tears.

Now that wasn’t fair. He caved like a deck of cards around a woman’s tears.

“If you have something to discuss with me, it can be done in either your office or mine.  _Not_  a public elevator, where the  _camera,”_ he emphasized.“Is recording everything that’s happening. I swear to God, Alexis if I end up on youtube again because of you…”

Alexis looked away, blinking rapidly to get rid of the tears. “You’re right.” She spoke softly.

Daniel was immediately distrustful. Any sudden acquisition by Alexis _or_ Alex- back when she'd gone by that name-  was cause for suspicion.

The rest of the elevator ride passed in silence while they both ignored each other. When the doors opened, they both walked down the tube as if they arrived on the same elevator every day. As if there was nothing wrong, Daniel turned to Betty’s desk, expecting to see her grinning at him and brandishing a coffee in one hand and a bagel in the other.

Instead, he just caught a flash of red and pink polka-dots as she zoomed by him towards someone standing in the open area.

“GIO!!!” She shrieked and stood up to hug him. Daniel could see Gio’s face when he heard Betty’s yell. A couple of different emotions flicked over’s face before he settled on happy to see her. Betty was hugging him hard enough to break him in half and babbling something about the Grand Canyon and Rome and “ohmygosh it’s so good to see you.”

Quickly aware that he was standing in the middle of the hall and gaping, Daniel mumbled something under his breath to Alexis about seeing her later, and then maneuvered around the (still!) hugging couple and into his office. Alexis went off towards hers, her own assistant waving messages in her face.

Daniel crossed to his desk and put down his jacket and briefcase. He sat down and wiggled the computer mouse so that the screensaver would click off, and peeked over the top of the monitor out his window and into the hallway. From this angle, he could see Betty as she focused her attention on Gio.

Wait. Hadn’t they been…didn’t they…after she broke up with Henry? Wasn’t she with..?

His eyes narrowed as he looked down at his keyboard, typing in his password with unnecessary force.  _Maybe it was time to discuss the new Meade Publications policy of only selling food and beverages on floor numbers that start with vowels._

He opened up Outlook and started clicking through emails. Most of them were from Betty, since one of her jobs was to screen and redistribute email to the right people. He felt something inside him tighten each time he saw her name in the ‘from’ column. His email was a public domain, and even though most of the people he worked with on a daily basis reported directly to their department heads, it was still amazing how much crap junk mail he received without her to run interference.

Daniel peeked up again, only to have his eyes narrow even further. Betty had thrown her arms around his neck again and kissed him… on the lips!

He felt his left eyeball start to twitch. If this had been a cartoon, steam would have been coming out of his ears. His immediate reaction was to vault over the desk and through the door screeching like a demented banshee,  _Mine! Mine! Hands off!_  But decided that lacked a certain class and decorum.

Daniel jerked his eyes back to his computer screen instead.

“Goood Morning, Daniel!” Betty sang out, flinging open the door and practically dancing towards Daniel’s desk. She held his coffee and his bagel in her hand.

“Guess what! Did you see Gio? He’s back from Rome! Do you mind if I take a little extra time and go to lunch with him? He wants to fill me in!”

_Humph._

Daniel ignored her for a moment, pretending to be engrossed in an email from Wilhelmina changing the staff meeting from 10:30 to 11:45.

“Oh…yeah. That’s great.” Daniel was actually rather proud of how even-tempered he sounded.

Betty stopped fussing with his bagel and looked at him oddly.

“Is…is something the matter?”

Daniel told himself to stop acting like an idiot. “No, of course not. Thanks for breakfast.” He forced himself to raise his gaze to up to hers. Her hair was back today in a headband, leaving her face free of encumbering hair. He forced a smile. It wasn’t her fault he was acting like a fucking jealous idiiot.

When Betty smiled back Daniel’s heart skipped a beat. Her smile had always been one of the most amazing things about her face. It was infectious, always causing whoever she was smiling at’s mood to immediately improve. He noticed that she was wearing a little glossy stuff on her lips, enough that it looked like she had just licked them. Her teeth were perfectly straight and almost blindingly white. Her smile was, in a word, beautiful. He just stared up at her, uncomfortably aware that his mouth was hanging open just a little bit.

Betty’s grin turned a little mischievous. “Isn’t it awesome?” I’m making Gio take me for the  _stringiest_  meal we can find. Then I’m going to eat about six tubs of popcorn and fifty pieces of Laffy Taffy.”

Daniel, remembering when his own braces came off, managed to stop gaping and grinned back. “Make sure your popcorn has extra butter.”

“Definitely! “ Betty moved back from Daniel’s desk, strangely excited at Daniel’s reaction. It was such a huge accomplishment for her---another step in becoming an ‘attractive, confident woman.’ That he was so obviously pleased for her completely eclipsed her happiness at seeing Gio again. “So, is there anything else you need?”

Daniel shook his head. “A long lunch is fine.” Betty turned to walk out the door. “But don’t let it become a habit!” He hollered after her as she left the room.

* * *

 

Alexis sighed. She dialed Daniel’s extension and tried not to wince when he barked a hello into the receiver. This would have been so much easier if he had been in a better mood. After today, she had an inkling as to why.  _Poor, poor little bro. He’s always been completely clueless about women…well at least the ones that matter._

“Daniel, it’s me.” She tried to sound confident and not scared to death. “I really need to talk to you. About…everything.”

There was a silence from the other end.

“Please, Danny? It’s important. Ten minutes?”

Daniel huffed out a breath and something that sounded like, “Fine!” and slammed down the phone.

Alexis snatched up her cell and dialed. “Mom? He said he’d meet with me!”

“Well, darling. Of course he did. I didn’t raise any boars.”

“But what if he won’t listen? Or gets even angrier? Or what if….?”

“Alexis, can you really blame him?” Claire’s words caused the older Meade sibling’s nervous rant to trail off. “All you can do is try to explain. And apologize. Who knows? He might surprise you.”

Alexis sighed, told her mother goodbye, and ended the call. Earlier, she had her assistant bring in the food. Daniel had a well-known addiction to…of all things…spring rolls. Alexis had arranged for some to be cooked fresh and brought up to her office for Daniel to snack on. There was some soda and Evian (which is what she remembered him drinking a couple of years ago.) for him to drink, and her  _pièce de résistance_ ….Death by Chocolate. She knew he loved it.

*****

Daniel felt like biting something. He was starving. Earlier, he had forgotten to ask Betty to order something up for him- he was way too occupied by her and…. Gio.  _Gio._  What kind of a name was that? It sounded like a pedophile…or a puppy-dog rapist. Betty had (finally) come back from her  _hour_ and a  _half_ lunch and was blazing away on the phone, working in her own, careful way to make up for the extra forty-five minutes she had taken earlier.

Somehow he felt guilty on top of everything else.

When he got to Alexis’s office, he noticed that she had taken the time to draw the blinds and make the room as private as possible. This “talk” of theirs was way overdue, but that didn’t mean he was exactly looking forward to it.

Alexis gave him a small smile. Looking at her behind that desk, Daniel waited for all the emotions that usually swamped him when he saw her to hit: regret, anger, disappointment, guilt…love…

“Hello again,” he said, coming inside and closing the door. There. That was neutral enough that she couldn’t be offended by his tone.

“Thanks for coming. There’s food, if you’re hungry.” She smiled as Daniel made a beeline for the small table where the food was set out. “I remember you doing that when we were little. Mom would throw these ridiculously grand dinner parties, and you and I would sneak down to watch through the banister. Do you remember?”

Daniel smiled and swallowed the bite he had just taken.

“Yeah…then you’d usually dare me to make a food run….See if I could get in and out of the kitchen before anyone noticed me. Nine times out of ten, I got caught and you had to lie for me to bail me out from under the wrath of Greta. I was never clever enough to make up a convincing lie that quickly.”

Alexis’s smile faded.

“Daniel-“ she started and stopped completely unsure of what to say to him. “I…uh…oh hell. I’m not any good at this crap.” She threw up her hands, completely disgusted with herself.

“What, you give me two seconds and then give up? Great. Nice snack. Gotta r---“

“Oh just shut  _up._  I wanted this to go well. I wanted to ..to…oh god, Daniel I’m so  _sorry_!” She sat there behind the desk, forehead resting in her hands.

Daniel paused halfway through getting up. He sank back down in his chair and stared at Alexis, completely stunned.

“Oh, dammit. You know how I was. You went for someone and I have… _had_ …to turn everything into a freaking competition. When I saw you with DJ’s mother, It was no different. I told myself that it was just another stupid model, just another bounce between the sheets with someone that you were done with. I never thought that she would get…I mean…that I would be somebody’s….” Alexis trailed off and for the first time looked up from her hand to see Daniel’s reaction.

“But why Alexis? Why would you…it didn’t matter to you who it was or how serious I was about her. And, yeah, a few of them could have been serious. I never got the chance to find out! You always had to drag me down. To prove how much better you are at everything by taking whatever I have my eye on.“

Alexis nodded miserably. “The thing is, Daniel,” she said in a whisper, “It was never so much about bringing you down. It was about building me…up.”

Daniel jumped up and whirled over to the snack table _. Manly Coping with Emotion Sublaw 14.6. Whenever you think you might cry- stuff your face with food._ He thought inanely.

Alexis hurried on while her brother was otherwise occupied with seeing how many spring rolls he could jam between his lips.

“Dad was always….. _always,_ Daniel, pushing me into beings someone I’m not. Someone I wasn’t back then, and someone I could never be. I know that I hurt you.  _I know that._  When he would say to ’Stop throwing like a pansy, Alex’ or ‘Those clothes make you look like a fruit, Alex,’ or my own favorite, ‘I saw you hugging Daniel you sick son of a….’” Alexis’ words became choked up from trying to not cry. She had to take a deep breath. She blinked furiously. “Every day, Danny. Almost every time he saw me. And I could do something to you to make me feel less like a ... a pretense. Dad would give me that old Meade chuck on the shoulder and tell me that it was good to see two brothers so competitive.”

Daniel was quiet for a minute. He grabbed a napkin and spit his mouthful of food into it, trying to discretely throw it into the trash can. He was glad that his back was to Alexis. He didn’t think he had the courage to continue this conversation if he was looking at her. “What about here, at Mode? Why haven’t you ever told me this before?”

“I wish I could blame it all on Wilhelmina. But I can’t. Not all of it. That first year I was back, with all the insanity of Fey and Dad being arrested and then mom… I just told myself that there was no way that you would ever accept me for who I am. And then last week with the..with Christina…”

Daniel could tell that she was crying from the hitching of her breath. He took a step back towards Alexis.

“I could have killed someone.  _Two_  someones. Then I saw your mail about DJ and…I just lost it. I knew that this would just be another thing that would hurt you. And I couldn’t stand to do it…and after the party I just kept thinking that all of it would go away, that you were innocent and there was no way that anything bad could happen. If Betty hadn’t…”

That caused Daniel to whip around.

“Betty?” Daniel stared at Alexis, noticing how her mascara had tracked all over her face.

Alexis nodded miserably. “She’s really a terrific person. I don’t even know all the things she’s done for mom and for you… and now for me.”

Daniel grabbed the silk handkerchief out of his pocket and handed it to his sister. She gave him a watery smile and dabbed at her face.

Daniel ran his hand through his hair. “Betty. Yeah…..she’s pretty special.” He sat back down.

Alexis shifted in her seat. Daniel didn’t speak for a moment, lost in his own thoughts. “You know, Danny, if there’s…I mean to say…um…if there’s anything that you want to tell me, you know you can, right?”

Daniel’s gaze focused on his sister’s blue eyes. It was always a jolt to see his brother’s eyes in this beautiful woman’s face.

Alexis waited a moment. It broke her heart a little that Daniel had to visibly think about it before he was willing to open up to her. That, like nothing else spoke volumes about how much damage she had done to this grown man across her desk. God. She had so much to make up for.

“Well. It’s nothing..um. Not really anything. Nothing s-s-s-significant,” he stammered.

Alexis kept her face straight by pure force of will.

“Okay. So maybe I’ve been thinking about her. Um, what I mean to say is….Er….the problem is that she’s my…and I could never…because she’s not like.…" He trailed off mid-babble and vigorously scrubbed the palm of his hand over his face.

Alexis bit the inside of her cheek. She wanted to jump up and do a jig with glee at the fact that Daniel was even speaking to her, but knew that one teeny hint of an inkling of laughter would send him running for the hills. She would not hurt him…not again.

“Hm, I have an…idea,” she said instead.

**************


	5. Chapter 5

“What do you mean, she can’t make it?” Betty’s voice had gone from ‘pleasant administrative assistant’ to ‘run and hide’ in less than three seconds it had taken for her to switch the phone from one hand to the other and put her right hand on her hip.

Daniel, from where he had been staring at different advertisements, spread all over the coffee table in front of his chaise, smiled to himself.  She was so much fun to watch. He knew how excited she was about Christina being back from the hospital. She had been looking forward to seeing her all week, and had grabbed the ringing phone out of habit rather than any sense of administrative assistant-ly duty.

“I will be happy to take a message. Yes.  Uh-huh…yes, it is very sad that she relapsed, but I’m sure you understand that Mr. Meade won’t hold the cover for her, even if he could.  Sure. Yes. And that’s her cell? Fan-tastic.” 

Daniel’s grin became more pronounced. Betty had learned so much in the time that she had started working for him. Three years ago, she would have been railroaded by the pushy model.

He watched her as she hung up, and then quickly dropped his eyes to his work when she turned on her heel and bent over to get her purse from under her desk.

He didn’t need any more dreams of her, thank you very much. His powers of recall were just fine.

He heard her little knock on the door, and looked up.  “Yes?” 

“I just wanted to let you know that I was going to go down to the closet. Oh, and Alexis wanted to meet with me for some reason…do you know what the heck that’s about?”

His mind was screaming  _change the subject! Change the subject!_  “Did you know that we were speaking again?”

“Yeah, it’s all over the building.” Betty walked closer, unabashedly nosy, and perched on the side of the chaise to look over his shoulder. “Wow. That’s looking great. I wish I could wear shoes like that! Heels that long would make me actually look tall!  And I’m glad.” She said, going back to her original topic.  “Christina even said that she came to her and personally apologized. I’m not sure if Christina believes her or not, but Alexis is certainly trying to make amends. Did you know that she paid for her and Stuart to have their own apartment? And she got him into some other experimental testing…..” Betty trailed off. “Anyway, I should be going. Do you need anything while I’m gone?”

“Nope.” Daniel didn’t trust himself to speak any more than he had to. Not with her this close. He could smell her shampoo- something like coconuts and vanilla.

“Okey dokey, then. I’ll see you later.”

Betty, completely oblivious to the riot of things running amok through her boss’ head, hitched her purse a little higher on her shoulder and dialed Christina.

“Ooh, I’m glad you called. Alexis came down here lookin’ for you. She hinted that you and I would be celebrating something afterwards. I think you should go there first. We can always catch up when you’re done.”

“Are you sure?”  Betty made her way around Amanda’s desk and towards the elevators.

“Yes, Betty. Now hurry up and bring me all the details!”

Betty shrugged and rang off. She took a left and resisted the urge to check to see if her hair looked okay before checking in with Alexis’s assistant, who waved her on towards the closed door.  Betty took a deep, steadying breath, and knocked.

“Come in.”

Betty did so, running her hands nervously down the sides of her skirt.

“Betty! Hello, please come in and sit down. Would you like anything?”

 _Ooooh-kay. So this is what it feels like to be in the twilight zone._ “No, I think I’m okay. Christina said that you wanted to talk to me?”

Alexis stared at her for a moment.  “Yes. Well, you know that I can be rather impatient sometimes.” She smiled at Betty, who tentatively smiled back. “It’s just that I’d like this settled, and we’re on kind of a time crunch. You see….I need you. We do.”

“We?” 

“Yes.  _We._  Me. Daniel, the rest of Meade Publications. Well, here. Let me just explain.”

 _That would be lovely_ , Betty thought. She managed to keep it inside though. 

“Well here goes:  Betty, I’ve seen what a smart and dedicated worker you are. The whole building knows who you are, and more importantly knows that you have  _worked_ your way into a position of trust. They know how hard you work, and know how much Daniel relies on you.” Alexis paused to gauge Betty’s reaction. She and Daniel had worked on exactly what the script of this conversation would be beforehand to ensure success.

Betty looked down at her lap shyly, cautiously raised her eyes to Alexis’s and smiled.

“Right. Well, we have a small tourism magazine that is in the process of going online. And, the Editor of that magazine, the  _New York Guide_  is taking a leave of absence. She’s having a baby.”  Alexis paused, inwardly pleased at the spark of interest she saw on Betty’s face before she schooled her expression back into polite inquiry.  “Here’s the thing. We know that you have bigger plans than just being someone’s assistant all your life. You’re what, twenty- two?”

“Twenty-four.”

“Right. Well, how do you think you would like to be in charge of the magazine while Debbie is on leave? I can’t promise anything after that, of course, but we can surely use this to ..hm. Build up your resume. NYG has a huge reader base with both tourists and natives. You probably know that is one of the places where restaurants and hotels, along with shows and fun-spots are reviewed.  It’s a very small publication, but it has a wide but loyal following. As I said, we’re almost ready to launch the website, so you would be writing as well. Features, mostly. But possibly some copywork and editing.”

Betty’s mouth had fallen open. “You…you’re offering me a…a j _ob_?”

“Temporarily. And you wouldn’t be starting for about a week, so you’d have long enough to get someone trained to take your place at MODE before you left. The salary would be increased, of course.”

“An…Editor? Of a Magazine?”

Alexis smiled again. “If you want to talk to Daniel, I understand. And I’m sure you need time to tell your family. But I do need to know for certain before you leave for work this evening.”

“Oh, no…I don’t need to think about it at all. This is an amazing opportunity, and I’m beyond flattered that you would think of me. I promise I won’t let you down.”

Alexis held out her hand. “Fantastic! I’ll have human resources get started on the paperwork. Be thinking about who you want to replace you. Daniel shouldn’t have just anyone, you know. I’ll send a resume to your desk. There’s this woman that might just do the trick. I almost hired her myself, actually.”

Betty had floated out of the office on a cloud of pure joy, before Alexis’s last words sunk into her brain.  

Daniel shouldn’t have just anyone?

Someone besides... her?

* * *

 

Christina took one look at Betty’s face and knew it was good news. She held out her arms and the two friends hugged, Betty laughing at being kicked aside by Christina’s belly.  Betty was so excited that she was speaking almost without breathing.

“Oh…it’s so good to see you! You’ll never believe it. I’m going to be the Editor-in-Chief of a magazine, of  _New York Guide_ , the tourist magazine? Anyway someone is going on maternity leave and I just got promoted and I can’t believe it!”

“Whoa…whoa…slow down. I have to tell you that I’m starving. I don’t think that I can wait to go out- would the cafeteria be okay? I’m ready to start gnawing off this girl’s arm if the meat wouldn’t have been so bloody stringy.”

The model Christina was pining up gave her a dirty look.

“Sure! Fine! That’s perfect.”

Christina took over the conversation as they made their way to the cafeteria. Christina was adding a chicken salad to her tray (which looked funny next to the two pieces of cake and the ice cream) when Betty spotted a free table. The place was so busy that she grabbed Christina’s tray and went over to claim it before someone else did.

When Christina waddled up, she was holding a bag of Fritos and pulling them open.  She sat down and started dipping them into the ice cream, making blissful sounds as she chewed.

“So, Alexis said that I had to choose my replacement.”

“Oh, Betty I’m just so happy for you. I can’t believe that you are going to be shooting up the ladder so quickly. What Daniel is going to do without you, I just don’t know.”

“The position is only temporary, but oh… imagine if I do it well! Who knows what will happen?”

“Have you thought about who you’re going to get to fill in for you?” Christina’s mouth was full, but she asked her question anyway.

“Alexis said something about someone, but…but you’re going to think that I’m crazy, but I was thinking of Amanda.”

Christina actually stopped eating for a moment to stare at Betty in shock. “Amanda? The skinny bitchy twit? The one that slept with Daniel? The one who has been so horrible to you since you started working here?  _That_  Amanda?”

“Well. Yeah. But, I think that she would be good for Daniel. She knows a good bit of what to do already, and knows the people….Plus. Well, plus I think that there’s more to her than the side she shows to the people here.”

Christina shook her head. “Well, it’s your call I suppose. But won’t Alexis be unhappy with your choice? What about this other girl she was talking about?” Christina started in on the cake, leaving the salad all wrapped up.

Betty took a bit of her own chicken salad and thought for a moment. “I hate to say it, but this is my decision. Alexis made that perfectly clear. And I think that Amanda might just surprise everyone. She just needs a chance.”

The two friends’ conversation continued on to bits and pieces of things that they had missed while Christina was at the hospital.  Neither of them noticed the two people who got up from the table behind them, just as neither of them noticed how the two had heard every word of Betty’s excited conversation.

* * *

 

When Betty returned to Mode, she saw Daniel talking to Amanda. Amanda was giving him his messages.  Betty wondered at the strange look Amanda gave her, before handing the girl from Queens her own. It had been a genuine smile, ages apart from the normal self-confident smirk Betty normally saw on her face.

“Hey, Betty. So, how was it?” Daniel teased her. She set her things down on Amanda’s desk and whirled, standing up on her tiptoes and giving Daniel a huge, hard hug.

Daniel’s breath was squeezed out of him, and he started to laugh. It felt so good to put his arms around her again. He tentatively squeezed back.

 “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” Betty, in her excitement, had lost her balance while on her tippy-toes and the full length of her body fell flush against Daniel’s.

Daniel braced himself so that they both wouldn’t go toppling back onto the floor. He could feel everything soft of hers pushed up against everything hard of his. Daniel had this ridiculous urge to kiss her, in front of everyone here. He had even moved his head a fraction of an inch to do so when Betty pulled away, blushing and flustered.

 _Dear God, what was he doing?!_  

Daniel let go of her and quickly bent down to pick up the messages that had floated to the floor from Betty’s exuberant hug.

Betty turned to Amanda, who was watching the two of them with avid interest. She pushed her glasses back up onto her nose, and took a deep breath to tell Amanda her news. It was probably good that Daniel was here anyway. Betty wasn’t sure how he’d take the news of Amanda’s impeding promotion.

“Amanda, I have a proposition for you.” Amanda’s turned to give Betty her whole attention.

Earlier, when she and Marc had overheard Betty’s exuberance at lunch, she had been almost gleeful. Then as she and Marc had hurried away to celebrate, Marc had said offhandedly, “That Betty sure is a nice person, “ and Amanda had the worst feeling of guilt overcome her. Christina had been right. She had been horrible. _Beyond_  horrible. But here Betty was, sticking up for her, willing to forgive and forget and give her a real chance at moving up.

Amanda let the phone ring while Betty told her the news. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Daniel pop up, flabbergasted at Betty’s choice.

“…and anyway, I think that you can take care of Daniel. But it is temporary, so if you don’t want to do it knowing that you’ll have to come back, then I understand.”

Amanda found her hand closing around on Betty’s forearm almost before she realized what she was doing.

“Betty….  _Thank you._  I promise that I won’t screw this up.” Amanda’s voice had lowered with honest intensity. She tried to tell Betty with her face how happy and thankful she was.

Betty grinned. “I know you won’t. Or…I wouldn’t have chosen you!”

She patted Amanda’s hand and turned to find Daniel gaping at the both of them. She rolled her eyes, scooped up her stuff and grabbed his elbow to turn him around, giving him a not-so gentle push towards his office.

 She had work to do.

* * *

 

When Daniel’s phone rang later in the day, it distracted him enough that he didn’t notice the call display before he flipped it open to answer it.

“Mr. Meade?”

At the accented voice, Daniel’s attention was completely focused on the phone.

“Mr.…Suarez? How are you? What can I do for you?”

“I wanted to thank you. I can’t remember the last time Betty was so excited about something. You’ve made my daughter very happy. It’s not enough of a thank you, but I would like to invite you to dinner this evening to celebrate.”

Daniel felt a surging spurt of happiness, followed immediately by a crushing blow of nervousness. Dinner? A whole evening with her and her family? Two hours ago, he had almost kissed her in front of an office full of people. At the rate he was going, he’d have her seduced on the couch with one of the Saints looking down at him, her face flushed and sweaty, mouth swollen from his kis--“

“Daniel?”

“Oh!”  _Idiot. Yeah. Let’s explore what kind of a dumbass mentally seduces a man’s daughter while on the phone with him._ Dr. Phil  _wouldn’t even touch that one._

“Oh, sure, Mr. Suarez. That sounds like,  _bliss._  “Fun,” he continued, forcing a smile into his voice. Any time that he could spend with the Suarez family left him feeling equally jealous and in awe of how close of a family they were. “Do you need me to bring anything?”

“Just my daughter. I worry about her on that train back and forth from the city to home.  Why, just the other day she said some gangbanger pulled a knife on some old lady sitting not four rows from her.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure she comes with me.” Daniel cringed as soon as the words were out of his mouth.   _God, please save me. Being twelve the first time was annoying enough. I could do without the innuendo._

Daniel hung up the phone, and looked up at the soft tap on his door.  Amanda stood there, not posing like she normally did, but looking completely unsure of herself.

“Hi.”  He smiled and gestured that she should come in.  When she shut the door, he raised his eyebrows, but didn’t respond.

“Look, I don’t want this to be awkward for you. I just wanted to tell you that Betty chose me. She could have had someone else. And, um…I don’t really understand why she did. Did you have anything to do with it? ‘Cuz we used to be together or something?” Amanda bit her lip then blurted, “Cuz if you put her up to this just because you feel sorry for me because I had a little thing for you…”

“Whoa, wait. Alexis hired her, not me. And if she said it was up to Betty, then it was.  We’re adults. I’m pretty sure I can handle it if you can.”

Amanda smirked and threw out her hip. “Well, if you ever want to go back to sleeping with assistants….” 

Daniel grinned, knowing that he was being teased. “No. I think I’m done with that. He looked past Amanda to where Betty was gathering up her things for the evening, completely unaware of the expression on his face. “I think that the typing and filing and phone answering will be enough.”

Amanda recognized the look. She had seen it on her face in the mirror enough. She expected to feel… jealous. When she didn’t, she smiled again, genuinely. Maybe she was finally over Daniel Meade after all!

Why had he never noticed that bitchy, in-your-face Amanda was more of an act than a reality? Daniel was surprised to find out that he actually _liked_ this Amanda.

“Well, suit yourself. There’s plenty of others in line for the Amanda Show. But thank you Daniel. This really… this…It just means a lot, is all.”

Daniel nodded.  “You know, I’m not the one responsible for any of this. I think we can work together fine.” He stood up and threw a couple of things into his briefcase, more because he wanted to look busy than for any idea that he would be doing any work this evening, and crossed to the door to open it for her. As Amanda turned to go through the door first, Daniel spoke low, so Betty couldn’t overhear.

“You can make sure you and Marc go easy on her from now on. That would mean a lot.”

Amanda nodded, surprised by the quick burst of emotion she felt. Guilt and Shame and an odd sense of... pride at Daniel for sticking up for Betty. 

“Hi, Amanda. HI, Daniel. Are you guys leaving?” 

Amanda, remembering the look on Daniel’s face, quickly declined, saying that she wanted to get some things done before she went home.

As she watched Daniel and Betty walk towards the elevator, she was surprised that she had never noticed their body language before. How he lightly rested his hand on her back while holding open the doors for her to step through. How she looked up at him, completely oblivious to her surroundings while she told him something that had him smiling.

How very interesting.

* * *

 

The ride in the town car was quiet. Betty asked Daniel if he would mind stopping by her apartment so that she could change clothes. He chose to wait in the car, not trusting himself to start sniffing her perfume while she was in the bathroom.

This was getting a little ridiculous. He normally had sex at the very least four times a week, sometimes twice or three times a night.  A flashback of dry swallowing the pills came back to him, causing him to lick his lips. Betty, had of course been right. He did substitute sex for failings in his life, but he also enjoyed it. At least when he was having sex, he wasn’t alone.

But, the last time he had had sex…well, sex that didn’t involve his hand anyway, had been what, three days ago? Four? The morning that Betty had come over for dinner. Funny how that damned kiss with Betty replayed in his mind more than the sex with whatshername had. To be honest, he wasn’t sure if he could remember what the girl from that morning had looked like, let alone what her name was.

So when had Betty become so important? Sure, she was invaluable as an employee, but when had he realized that it was her that he wanted to be with? Her that he dreamed about? He stared out the tinted window as her lights came on in her apartment. Was it just... _sex_? So what if they did have sex? What’s the worst thing that could happen? Well, besides the end of a friendship that he had come to rely on to get him through the day. Or the fact that he knew she would quit her job, and he’d never see her again. Or possibly the giant sexual harassment suit she would file against him. But… she had kissed him back.   _She kissed him back!_  Surely that meant  _something_? Maybe if he could just get her to remember it? Wasn’t there some kind of time limit on amnesia cases? Sure! He could just knock her upside the head with his briefcase and then…

Daniel groaned, trying to shake himself out of the endless circle of his thoughts. 

Presently, Betty came back down looking ridiculously young in a pair of jeans and a turtleneck sweater. It was red, and made her look amazing.

“You look… nice.” He said, lamely.

She smiled at him and shut the car door. “People keep saying that to me since I had the braces off. I can’t get used to it. I mean, I’m the same me, just with less metal.” She smiled again and sat back as the car started to move.

“So, are you excited about the job?” It was a dumb question, but the first thing he could think of that wasn’t completely perverted or effusively complementary. 

She nodded and stretched. “It’s been such a long day! I wanted to get everything ready for when I left. Alexis had initially said that I would be leaving in a week, but she said that as soon as this Debbie person was told that I accepted, she put in to start her leave of absence on Friday. So, it looks like tomorrow will be my last day working for you, Mr. Daniel Meade.”

“Oh.”  _Oh no!_   _That’s it?_

The two were silent for several minutes as the car slid through the late-evening traffic.

“I was thinking….” Betty began, just as Daniel started in with “I was wondering….”

They both laughed a little nervously and Daniel gestured for her to start. He stared out of the corner of her eye at her shadowed profile as light from the highway street lamps ghosted over her face.

Betty cleared her throat.  “Oh, nothing. I was just thinking that maybe…um…maybe I should still handle some of your more personal things. For example, you made an appointment with that custody lawyer. That sort of thing would be less um… invasive if you just had me take care of it for you.”

Daniel turned to stare at her. God, did she think that he couldn’t handle anything by himself? He wasn’t a child for Christ’s sake, but still…

“If you want, I mean," She rushed on, nervously. "Of course Amanda is perfectly qualified to take care of all that, but I thought it would be less embarrassing and everything.  But never mind. It’s silly.  I guess I just don’t want to leave the nest, as it were. Now, what were you going to say?”

 _What was he going to say?_   _Think, idiot._  “Oh, nothing I guess. I forgot. So what do you think your dad will make for dinner? I’m starving!”  He kept up idle chitchat as they drove through the night.

When the driver took the Jackson Heights exit off of the highway, Daniel was grateful. Just get through this evening. Just one thing at a time. She didn’t mean anything by it, for Pete’s sake. Betty was the world’s worst liar. She was just trying to be nice, and he was overreacting.

“You know,” Daniel said as they pulled up to her father’s house. “One thing I’m really going to miss about you taking this job is that you never lie to me. You just tell me the truth, and not just what I need to hear. I really can’t tell you how much that means to me, Betty.”

The driver opened Daniel’s door, and he slid out of the car. He completely missed the stricken look on Betty’s face.

 


	6. Chapter 6

Betty was quiet all throughout dinner. Daniel’s words kept floating in her head. She found that she missed most of the discussion, instead finding herself wrestling with her conscious.  She  _lied._ She was a  _liar._  She was a good liar, so much so that Daniel didn’t even suspect her duplicity.  
  
It shouldn’t hurt her feelings that he hadn’t brought up the kiss. It was obviously no big deal to him. She was making it a big deal. Stupid! Even earlier in the day when she had hugged him, she had thought that he was…for a second….but no. Because why would a kind…rich, successful…handsome…sexy…amazing guy like Daniel Meade even care about a kiss with an assistant…like her? It wasn’t as though he hadn’t kissed assistants before.  By the score.  
  
“Betty?” Oh, jeez. Him even saying her name made her shiver.   
  
“Yes? What?” Betty noticed her dad also give her a concerned look. She wasn’t eating, instead just pushing her tamales across the plate with her fork. Which was strange behavior indeed. Usually Betty went after her dad’s tamales like a room full of bees to a flower petal.   
  
“Is something wrong,  _Mija_?”   
  
“Wrong? Why would something be wrong? I’m having the most exciting day of my life! No more working for a tyrannical boss…. Well…at least for a few months.” She forced a smile at Daniel and stuck her tongue out at him.  She had to get over this. She would just tell him. Maybe on the way home.   
  
“So, Justin. I have a favor to ask.” Justin looked up from his own food and raised his eyebrows at her inquiringly.   “With this new job, I’m going to need some different clothes. Or at least a few different clothes.”  
  
Daniel sucked in a breath and immediately started coughing hard, trying to dislodge the piece of beef that was currently taking up residence in the middle of his throat.  Hilda reached over and whacked him on the back.   
  
 _Ow…_  
  
Come to think of it, she hadn’t really said too much to him. He remembered her freaking out on the phone earlier in the week and winced. Great. Something else to worry about.  
  
“Why do you want to dress differently? I think you dress beautifully, Mija.”   
  
Three sets of eyes, one blue and two brown, all became very interested in the food on their plate. 

  
“Oh, Dad. Mom’s clothes are great. Don’t get me wrong, but I think I need to look a little more professional as an Editor. And Justin, you know where all the deals are. I bet you can help me look a little…um…better?”  
  
Hilda spoke up. “Wait, Mom’s clothes?”   
  
“Well, some of the sweaters and stuff are. I went to uh…some stores to find some of the rest. When I started at MODE, we didn’t exactly have a lot of money.” Betty blushed. She hated talking about money in front of Daniel. She knew that if Hilda hadn’t started her own hair business, and her father hadn’t gotten a job as a cook in a local restaurant, then she couldn’t have even afforded to move out. Her paycheck would have had to go to the mortgage.  “It wasn’t a great sacrifice or anything. She had some nice clothes. Maybe a little out of date and all, but it made me feel close to her in some ways.”  _Oh, god. Would her mouth ever shut up??_ She took another large bite of food to stem the urge to say anything else.  Talking about her clothes and Goodwill in front of Daniel of all people? Way, cool, Betty.   
  
Daniel took a sip of milk. He ignored his milk mustache and said quietly, “You shouldn’t worry, Betty. Wear what you want to wear. I’m sure the other people that you’ll work with at NYG won’t care what you’re wearing.”  
  
“Well, that’s nice of you to say so, but I’m not doing this for other people. I’m doing it for me.”  _And for you_ , a small voice spoke up deep in the recesses of her mind. She immediately stomped the little voice down into oblivion. “I promised myself that the braces coming off would be my turn to try and…well…be a better person.”  
  
Daniel frowned. She didn’t need to be a better person. If she were any better of a person, someone would be canonizing her for sainthood.   
  
Hilda broke in. “Maybe Betty is changing things up for that hottie that is living next door to her.”  
  
“Oh, Hilda, Jesse is not a “hottie”. More of a tramp. He has like a different girl for every day of the week.  That’s kind of gro… “ Betty trailed off, clearly horrified at realizing what she was saying, remembering Daniel's sordid past.   
  
Justin jumped in quickly to the awkward silence. “I would love to go shopping with you, Aunt Betty. How about after school tomorrow?”   
  
Daniel had almost forgotten that other people were present, so focused had he been on Betty and her declaration. She had been about to say 'gross'. It was obvious.  
  
Ignacio cleared his throat. “Anyone for desert?”  And just like that, any lingering awkwardness over the previous discussion was dispelled as they all started clamoring for some of the Ignacio’s flan.

* * *

  
  
Betty had hugged and kissed everyone good night, and her family was turning en masse to go back inside out of the cool night air when Daniel opened the door of the car for her.    
  
He crossed around to the other side of the car and got in himself. He asked the driver to go to Betty’s apartment, and pushed the button to slide up the tinted window that separated the driver from the people in the back seat.  Daniel stared out the window, lost in thought.   
  
Of course. No wonder. He…disgusted her. Or people like him disgusted her. He knew it…kind of in an academic way by her disapproval over one incident or another over the last few years, but never had he thought that his past would be something that he would suddenly hate with such a passion. Seeing himself through her eyes caused him to feel slightly sick.  _He has like a different girl for every day of the week. That’s kind of gro…_   Gross. Disgusting. God, no _wonder_! 

The sound of the privacy screen rolling up seemed very loud in the quiet limo.   
  
He heard Betty clearing her throat next to him. Oh fantastic. Now she was gong to apologize for hurting his feelings. That just embarrassed him on top of everything else.  
  
“Um, Daniel?” She sounded tentative and unsure.   
  
“What?” Okay, so he probably could have said that a little nicer.  
  
“Why didn’t you ever tell me about DJ?”   
  
DJ? She wanted to talk about……?  He should have known never to try and anticipate what was going on in her head. It never was what he was thinking. He even sucked at that. “Well, what was I supposed to say? By the way, DJ isn’t really my kid. Can you please fax this for me? It was hard enough knowing it without having to acknowledge it.”  
  
“Does DJ know?”  Betty asked in a small voice, almost afraid of the answer.  
  
Daniel continued to stare out of the window. “No,” he said, shortly. Betty could see the line of his jaw harden in a way that she knew meant he was grinding his teeth. Daniel stared out of the window as they crossed over the bridge.   
  
Betty sighed. The car was silent enough that she felt like she needed to break the silence. And unfortunately, there was only one thing on her mind. “I need to tell you something.”   
  
 Daniel rolled his eyes.  _Great. Wonderful_. Probably some other dissertation on how he was screwing up his life. “Yes?”   
  
Betty took a deep breath. She put her hand on his forearm to get him to face her, but she faltered when she saw his eyes glinting at her in the darkness.   
  
“I….”  
  
“You what, Betty?”   
  
“I….I….Liedtoyou.” There. She said it.  
  
“You what?”   
  
Betty rolled her eyes. “I…lied…to you. About the other night.”  
  
“The other…night?” Daniel was baffled. What on earth was she talking about?  
  
Betty looked down at her lap. “When you kissed me, I do remember. I didn’t mean to lie to you, but I thought that it would be too weird because I know you didn’t mean to and here I was throwing myself at you….”  
  
Daniel’s jaw hit the floor.  
  
“…and earlier when you said that you trusted and valued my honesty I felt horrible for lying about it because like I said, I know it wasn’t really a biggie or anything….”  
  
Daniel turned so he was facing her. “You…but I thought you said that you didn’t remember anything!” He almost whined it, he was so surprised.  
  
“Well, it wasn’t exactly one of my greatest moments. And then the police were there and we were at the hospital, then I was so tired from everything….and the worst part about it was that you were too drunk to remember anything either. ” She trailed off miserably.   
  
“I wasn’t drunk.” He said it softly. Daniel reached out and tilted her chin up. “I remembered kissing you. I’ve _been_  remembering. It’s been driving me crazy with wanting to do it again.” His voice lowered to a whisper.  “Hey…Betty?”   
  
“Yes?” The word was so faint that he almost wouldn’t have known she said anything if he hadn’t been able to see her lips move.   
  
“I’m going to kiss you again. Is that okay?”   
  
He didn’t give her time to respond.  Just like last time, his lips touched hers softly before separating and giving her a chance to pull away.  Only unlike last time, Betty pushed up from the car seat to meet his lips with hers.  Lips met, mouths opened.  The kiss turned hotter as they learned the shape of each other’s mouths. Daniel groaned and yanked her onto his lap so that he could get closer to her. Before he knew quite how it happened, his hands were up under the back of her sweater, quickly warming on the hot flesh of her back.  He kneaded; pulled her closer.   
  
Betty couldn’t believe it was happening again. That Daniel wanted to kiss her. Her! But there was no denying it- especially when he pulled her up onto his lap. She rested her hands on his shoulders, not exactly sure what to do with them. Not that she was a virgin or anything, but neither Walter or Henry were much for making out.  Not like this. She’d never felt anything this….this…. crazy with either of  _them_. This need to feel Daniel’s skin.  She loved his mouth. Loved seeing him look up at her with his eyes half-mast with passion.  When his hands slid down lower to grip her bottom, she thought she would pass out. She fell forward against him, losing her balance completely.  Her hand flitted down to shyly touch the evidence of his desire for her. She had taken biology. She knew that this was just a natural response, but she was fascinated by the idea that she could do this to him; that  _she_  could make  _him_  want her. Her! Betty Suarez!   
  
Daniel thought the top of his head would explode when he felt her fleeting touch through the slacks of his suit. He cried out when she did it again. Just a tiny touch; two of her fingers sliding against his length.  Dimly, he knew that this wasn’t a good idea. He ignored it in favor of the heat, the wetness of her mouth, the sound of the little gasps she was making as he rocked up against her….  
  
He rucked up her sweater. The white of her plain bra was very bright in the darkness. He leaned forward and nuzzled his cheek against the fabric, looking up at her, watching as she bit her lip while her head fell back. He wanted to pull the cups down, to let his mouth run over every inch of her skin until she was moaning…  
  
“Sir?”    
  
Betty and Daniel froze as they heard the driver’s interruption.   
  
“Mr. Meade? We’re here. Would you like me to get the door?”  
  
Daniel reached out a shaky hand, leaning forward and pushing the button. “No, that’s okay. I’ll get it.”  He almost didn’t recognize his voice as his, as gravelly as it was.   
  
Betty yanked down her sweater and almost dived off of his lap. He couldn’t see her face. The driver had parked in front of her apartment, and the light from her building didn’t reach into the tinted depths of the car. “Betty?” Daniel whispered.   
  
She slid out of the car. Daniel followed her on his side, meeting her in front of the trunk.  
  
Betty took a deep breath. “So. Um…do you want to come up for…coffee or something?”  
  
Daniel’s eyes widened. He couldn’t help the horrified look that crossed his features any more than he could help breathing.  He had almost just taken her in a car, like some common whore, like he had done numerous times on the way back from a club, when he and his date couldn’t wait for a convenient bed. Betty deserved better than that. He had just treated her horribly, and now she was…inviting him up? The idea of turning her into some one-night stand made him sick. The idea that she wanted him… as a one-night stand…made his heart ache.  
  
Betty, seeing the look on Daniel’s face, and not hearing a response to her question, flushed a deep, humiliated, red. “Well, it’s late. That’s okay. I’m sure you have things to do.  I guess I’ll see you at work!”  
  
She whirled on her heel and ran up the stairs, stumbling against the banister a couple of times before making it up to her floor. By the time she got her door unlocked, tears were leaking down her cheeks. By the time she threw herself face down on the bed, she was sobbing.   
  
She was so  _stupid!  
_


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: . Awwww… I know. Don’t worry. I make everyone work for their happy endings. :D There is a lot of stuff in this chapter, some lose ends are tied up, some plot is set up, and hopefully it works.

Daniel stood there for awhile before getting back into the car. He was stunned at how quickly Betty had run off. What had just happened? One minute she was asking about DJ, and the next he was mauling her in the back seat of his town car.

Could he be any more of an idiot? Good thing she decided to go upstairs alone, because feelings or not, it had been on the tip of his tongue to accept her, to finish what they had started in the car.

And that wouldn’t be very good at all. Well, okay. So it would be good. It would be beyond good. It would be the most amazing thing on this Earth. And then it would be over when the sun came up. She would move on to Gio or someone else and he would be….alone.

It was ironic. Alexis had come up with the idea for Betty to work at another magazine, one where she could show her talents and really shine. It had the plus side of ensuring that Betty didn’t work for Daniel, thereby freeing up any awkward entanglements between a boss and his subordinate.

Now it just seemed as though Betty was further away from him than ever.

* * *

 

Friday morning found Betty already at her desk when Daniel arrived. He couldn’t get out of bed that morning, so nervous was he at seeing her again. She deserved an apology. She deserved more than just an apology. Butterflies the size of elephants mucked around in his stomach when he saw her calmly on the phone, with her back turned away from him.

Of course, now he knew what the soft skin on her back felt like. Yeah,  _that_ wasn’t distracting at all.

Daniel took a deep breath. Today was her last day of working for him. He owed it to her to make it a good day.

“Good morning, Betty.” His voice was quiet.

Betty jumped, her elbow knocking over her pencils. She gave him a dirty look and a little wave of her fingers, intent on her phone conversation, effectively ignoring him.

Daniel, unsure of what to do next, went into his office. He pulled the blinds for privacy. He didn’t want to have a bunch of people staring at him, today of all days. Plus, it had the extra bonus of letting him hide. He took off his jacket and flopped down on the couch. Work? Wasn’t happening.

It was about forty-five minutes before Betty knocked on his door. She shut it behind her a little louder than was absolutely necessary.

“Be---Betty?” He got his first look at her. She was wearing black hose, instead of tights, a skirt that did amazing things for her legs, and a black sweater top. There was a small butterfly pinned near her neck. Daniel thought his tongue was going to fall out of his mouth.

“Who were you expecting? I have your messages. Alexis called twice before you got here. Apparently you haven’t been answering your cell.  Wilhelmina called, and said ‘It must be nice to be able to take a late morning every once in awhile. Remind him that the buyer from Armani will be here at noon.’  Oh, and someone named Bianca confirmed for this evening. Now. since it’s,” she looked at the clock, “Ten forty-five, do you still want me to get you some breakfast?”

Daniel shook his head. Betty nodded once, shortly, and turned to leave. Daniel jumped up and grabbed her arm, his hand sliding down to hers until the forward motion stopped her exit. The feel of the heat of her skin caused him to shiver.

“Betty…” he began.

She jerked her hand away from his. “I’m sorry for the other night. It was stupid and childish of me to kiss you like that.”

_Wait. What?_

“I guess I just got carried away seeing what all the fuss about the great Daniel Meade was about. You are definitely a good kisser. Amanda always said that you were.” She forced a smile and said, “Speaking of, Amanda will be taking over for the afternoon while I finish up letting some people know about the change. Let her know if you need something.”

_Wait…. **What?**!_

The sound of the door clicking shut behind her seemed very loud in the quiet room.

She kissed… him?  _She_  was apologizing? Wait, did that mean that she just invited him up to… what. Compare notes? See how he measured up against the other men in her life?

Daniel had never understood before what it was like for all the girls that he had given the brush off towards over the years. He really thought that there were no problems with saying goodbye the next morning, or afternoon, or even that night. He’d had a few women call quits to things before, but for the most part it was Daniel who controlled the relationship.  His sense of irony was such that he could _almost_  see the humor in the situation.

But he never knew that it could hurt so damn much.

* * *

 

Betty found Justin sitting on the floor in front of her apartment, hands wrapped around his knees and belting out something she recognized from High School Musical, lost in the music coming forth from his iPod. Betty sagged against the stairway rail for a moment. She was drained. Exhausted. Heart-sore. The last thing she really wanted to do was traipse around New York with her nephew. But, truth be told, she missed him. He had lived with her since he was born, and it was weird for her to not have him underfoot.

“Hey kid.”

“Hi Aunt Betty! I thought that we should start off at Gabay’s then move on towards Century 21… and hey, is everything okay?” Justin used the doorknob to help himself up, then took a step forward and gave her a big hug. Betty found herself clutching him back. It was so nice to have someone here. As much as she loved being on her own in the city, she missed being around normal people.

She unlocked her door and he danced inside. She laughed. It was the first time she had laughed all day.

“Okay. For the optimal shopping experience, I suggest you wear something that is easy to get in and out of. And how much are we spending here?”

Betty crossed to her bedroom and changed into some sweats and a t-shirt. She put her hair back into a pony tail so that it wouldn’t get stuck on anything. She had been shopping with Justin and Hilda before. Justin was like a little drill sergeant and woe to the person who didn’t take his suggestions seriously. She knew that she would be trying on a  _lot_  of different clothes. Hilda wasn’t on this trip since she had clients, but all that meant was that there was no one to keep Justin in line.

Betty had decided that the bonus she was receiving for taking this job more than compensated for blowing some money on a nice wardrobe. Besides, didn’t Christina always say that shopping was like therapy? Or maybe that was drinking. Hm. Whatever…

She named an amount and watched with pleasure as Justin’s whole face started to gleam. “And, if that’s not enough, then I always have plastic!”

“Awesome. And you can treat me to dinner after we’ve bought out everyone. And, there’s this incredible secondhand district not far from Gabay’s where I bet we could find a lot of loot.”

Betty grabbed her keys and toed on her Keds. Justin was already shooing her out the door.

* * *

 

While they were shopping, Betty found out three things. The first was that Justin had an unholy skill at finding deals on clothes. He also had an uncanny style and was able to fully change her look---making her look…fashionable. Betty had been astounded when she looked in the dressing room mirror. Nearly every outfit she had tried on had given her a more sophisticated look.

The second was that she had lost some weight by running up and down five flights of stairs two to four times each day. She knew this because she had gone down a size. Justin flatly refused to let her get any skirts with elastic waistbands, and the result was a few skirts that showed off a  _lot_ of leg. Well, a lot of leg for her. She made Justin go to another store while she went a little crazy in Victoria’s Secret. He had this annoying habit of going into a heated debate on Why Lingerie Must Match To Avoid Flashing Your Goodies While Wearing Short Skirts…. It was just easier to buy it herself and let him approve.  She had had a fleeting thought that having one’s nephew approve underwear might be considered weird in some families. She heartily wished it was weird in hers.

The third thing that she realized in the middle of scarfing down a pretzel was that she was a horrible, mean-spirited, vindictive bitch. She was lower than a worm. Scum. The  _scum_ on a worm.

The other night, she had been just so… _hurt_  when Daniel had just stood there, gaping in horrified disgust at her. She had spent hours off and on the entire evening alternately bawling her eyes out or eating vast quantities of Ben and Jerry’s. Around five am, Betty had decided that enough was enough. She had gotten carried away. She should never have kissed him like that. The man had a sex addiction for cripe’s sake. He would kiss anything. Sure, it was humiliating. And degrading. And she worried that her stupid kiss would end one of the most important relationships in her life. So, she decided to quit feeling sorry for herself and get to MODE early. Lord knew she had enough to do to get ready for Friday and her new position.

When Justin had helped her up the stairs, she had been relieved to get home. He had insisted of going through her closet and physically removing a number of her old clothes, muttering something under his breath about paisley and bows at the neck. She had flatly refused to get rid of a couple of her more sentimental pieces, but the argument was half-hearted on both their sides. Justin had even written out which accessories go with which label and hung it up in the closet. Then he held out his hand for some cab money, kissed her goodbye and took off.

She had dressed so carefully. Black fit her mood. The clothes weren’t exactly the most expensive brand name, or the most “It” items, but they were new to her. They flattered her figure. They truly did give her confidence. And it was rather gratifying that Marc had done a double take when she walked by him getting Wilhelmina’s coffee.

But then Daniel had come in so late. It was obvious why. She didn’t need the phone call from that Bianca tart to figure that out. Why else would he come in late? Naturally he had been with another model. He had gone from her…to someone else.  Bianca. Tall, sexy, possibly foreign, definite boob job.

She had reacted badly.

Words spewed out of her mouth. She tried to make it seem like she was just trying him out like a freebie snack in a supermarket. And for a moment she had seen hurt on his face. His eyes had widened with surprise. He looked wounded. And she had felt glad.

For about three minutes.

Now she had an indeterminate amount of time to wait before the day was over. Amanda was blazing away on the phones. Some temp person was at the receptionist pod and seemed to be doing well. Someone from Human Resources had made sure that she had a key card for the offices at NYG, and she had received and sorted through several emails from her new staff. She had done everything but actually visit her new office. They were repainting it or something and wanted her to wait until Monday before going there.

It was a strange feeling for her to feel unneeded.

So she decided to hang out in the Closet with Christina for two hours until she could go home. Christina had been pleasantly surprised when she saw the “new” Betty. And Betty had held out for about ten minutes before bursting into tears and confessing everything to her friend.

“And we kissed, twice and both times were so amazing!” Betty wailed.

Christina, mindful of the way that gossip got around this place, had ushered the sobbing Betty into the Love Dungeon so that she wouldn’t be overheard.

“You and Daniel….?”

“And then he was completely disgusted with the idea of coming up to my apartment. I don’t even know why I said it. It was so stupid. Why would someone like him even look twice at someone like me?”

Christina handed her a Kleenex.

“And while I was upstairs crying my eyes out, he was out partying with someone. And I had to take her message and not throw up or anything when she called and I was so jealous that I said the most horrible things to Daniel when I gave him his messages…”  Betty wailed again, burying her face in a leopard-print pillow.

Christina, used to Betty’s moods and agony after things with Henry and Gio fell apart was completely blown away by how upset Betty was. This was beyond emotional. 

She let Betty cry herself out. Once Betty had gotten most of it out of her system, she seemed to feel a little better about things. She sniffed, and got up to splash cold water on her face. Some women could cry without there being any effects on their face afterwards, but Betty Suarez wasn’t one of them.

She hugged Christina. “I’m sorry to be such a baby, and to dump all of that on you.”

“No, don’t be silly. I’m glad you did. It’s nice to worry about someone else’s problems for once. So, you’ll be okay when you get home?”

“Yeah, I think I just needed someone to listen.”

”That’s what I’m here for, love.” Christina kissed her on her forehead and Betty left the small hidden room, not exactly feeling better about everything, but not feeling any worse. It was close enough to five that she felt she could leave without anyone caring too much.

She was walking back to get her purse, when she heard her name being called.

“Betty! Hey, Betty, I’ve been looking all over for you. Wow, nice threads. You’re looking pretty hot!”

“Oh, hi, Gio...”

“Hey now, what’s with the down face? It’s quittin’ time!”

Betty wasn’t in the mood for conversation, but she also didn’t want to be rude to Gio either. “Oh, it’s nothing. Just allergies. So do you have any plans for this weekend?”

“Yeah, actually. Hey do you want to go to dinner tonight?”

Betty blinked at him myopically through her glasses and her swollen eyes. “You want to go to dinner with me?” Her brain didn’t seem to be working.

There was the sound of a throat clearing behind them. Both Betty and Gio turned to see Daniel waiting patiently with his jacket thrown over his shoulder and his briefcase in his hand.

“Sorry to interrupt.” Daniel just stood there with a pleasant smile (one that was showing rather a lot of teeth) plastered on his face. “Betty, if you’re done for the evening, I was wondering if we could discuss some things.”

Betty looked from Daniel to Gio and back to Daniel.

She forced a smile. Neither man commented on how sickly it looked. “Gio, I don’t really feel like going out. If you want to stop by my place later, I can cook you something. Daniel…I am really not feeling well. I can call you later if you need me to.”

Daniel blinked. He was stunned that she had …blown him off.  And Gio!  _That_  guy got an invite to her apartment…for “dinner”!   _Get_   _out of here before you embarrass yourself more! Go! Go!_ He nodded, wished them both a good weekend and escaped.

If Gio was surprised over the invitation, he didn’t show it. He just smiled, told Betty to take some aspirin, and went off to deliver his evening orders.

* * *

 

Betty’s phone buzzed.

_\--Hey. I’ve got some sandwiches. Be there in 10.—_

Betty’s apartment didn’t have a security system, so Betty busied herself with straightening up the small apartment- especially disposing of the ice cream cartons- for Gio’s impending arrival. When he knocked, she met him at the door, unlocked the three different deadbolts that he father had installed, smiled a little and let him in.

The smell of peppers and onions hung around Gio like the cloud of dust that hung around Pigpen in the Peanuts cartoons.

Betty’s stomach rumbled.

Gio laughed and set out the food. “Okay, before we start, you need to congratulate me.”

“I…do?”

Gio beamed and threw out his hands.

“I’m getting married!”

* * *

 

Daniel’s phone rang. He ignored it and let it go to voicemail. It was probably Becks again. He wasn’t in the mood to talk to anyone. 

Everything was such a mess.  He unscrewed the lid of the Dewar’s and scooped a couple of ice cubes into a glass. The bite of the scotch fit his mood perfectly. 

On his way home, he had taken a call from his custody caseworker. She was nice, but the long and short of it was that since he wasn’t DJ’s biological father, he hadn’t a chance in hell of keeping him. Something about when he had requested the paternity test, it was possible for the other side to subpoena the records. The boy’s grandparents had moved quickly, and DJ was on his way back to France as he sat there, thumb up his ass.

He hadn’t even had a chance to explain… or to say goodbye.  He was out of Daniel’s life as suddenly as he had come into it. They had made noises about him getting to spend the summer with him, but nothing was set in stone.

DJ was gone.

Daniel tipped back the glass and swallowed the contents.

So that was less than satisfactory.  But the alcohol helped. He poured another scotch, this time forgoing the ice.

And then there was Betty.

God, but that was a fucked up situation. It had taken him awhile to realize that what she had said to him in his office wasn’t true. Betty wasn’t vindictive like that.  She wasn’t perfect either and could lash out at people. Which meant one thing: he had hurt her. Enough to act completely out of character. And that made him sick. It was as if everything that had happened since he and Betty’s first kiss had spiraled into one misunderstanding after another designed to hurt her. And that was the last thing that he had ever wanted to do.

But Sofia….Renee….any time he had thought he was happy, things had ended poorly.

Rather an understatement, that.

Truth was he was a coward. He didn’t want to lose Betty as a friend. As a part of his life, and a part of him was convinced that if he took that chance…he put himself out there, then she would be gone. Poof. Just like everyone else.

And the thing with her and Gio- he really shouldn’t interfere with that. God knew, if anyone deserved to be happy it was Betty. If she thought that Gio was the man to complete her life in that way, maybe he shouldn’t interfere.

Becks had even called and asked him to go out on the town. Daniel had declined, saying that he wasn’t feeling well. Becks had teased him about getting old.

Sitting here feeling sorry for himself disgusted him. He didn’t want to go out- he didn’t want to stay in. He hated this feeling.

Of course, that didn’t change any of the facts. Daniel kept drinking until eventually was saved from the endless cycle of his thoughts by passing out in the chair.

* * *

 

The pounding woke him up. He thought it was just his head, but he heard it on the door, too.

“Daniel! If you don’t open this door, so help me God I’ll break it down!!” The door rattled on its frame.

Daniel jumped up at the sound of Alexis’ yell. His head was swimming, and he staggered a few times, but he managed to get to the door without knocking over too many things.

He unlocked the locks and Alexis pushed the door open, sending him listing to the left.

“You’re drunk? Why is your phone off, you idiot! We have a major, MAJOR problem, and no one could reach you!”

Daniel shook his head to clear it, trying to dispel the pounding behind his eyes. “Problem?” Movement has been a bad idea. He was going to be sick.

Alexis actually stomped her foot. “It’s Betty, you moron!”

Daniel felt all the blood, not that there was much truth be told, leave his face. He heard a loud whistling sound, and for a moment, Alexis’s angry voice sounded like it was coming from very far away. He whirled, and skidded into his bathroom, tripping in his haste to get to the toilet in time.

Alexis made a face at the sound of her brother’s vomiting, but yelled anyway, “Daniel! We don’t have time for this!” She grabbed a shirt that had been tossed onto the floor, and a bottle of water from the sink. She had aspirin in her purse.

She heard the sound of the toilet flushing and what sounded like someone gargling.

“Let’s go.” Daniel’s voice was hoarse. He was tugging on his Harvard sweatshirt over his head. He patted his pockets for his keys and wallet. Alexis tossed the dress shirt and followed him down to the waiting taxi, explaining on the way.

* * *

 

The sight that reached Daniel when the elevator dinged open on floor nineteen made him fear the worst. Security guards, reporters and local police were milling around. Daniel, a little panicked by this point, pushed through the throng of people into the actual New York Guide offices.

What he saw broke his heart.

Towards the back, he could see Betty kneeling on the floor. Her head was bent, and her long hair had fallen forward so that her face was hidden. She looked as though she was gathering up papers that had spilled to the ground. A small plaque on top of the desk in the small office read Editor-In-Chief.

Normally, the NYG offices were pretty small. (Daniel knew this because before Alexis had come up with her “idea”, he had come down and checked up on what the space looked like. He wanted Betty to have her own office, and knew that she would be thrilled at the cramped area.) In fact, they shared floor space in the Meade building with a cat-fancier magazine. At NYG, there was a very small staff- one assistant that the Editor and two Assistant Editors shared a photographer, and a staff writer. The Editor did have her own office, but it was extremely small, with room only for a bookcase, two filing cabinets, a desk and two chairs facing the desk. The rest of the magazine staff shared a cubicle-like area (Granted, they were large cubicles, but still not the most glamorous of work spaces.)  

There was one conference room and a snack area that the other magazine shared.

Painted in red on the door, window, and desk of the Editor’s office was the words **WHORE, SLUT, BITCH** … and other less attractive words.  When Daniel pushed his way past a few more people, he could see the words **BETTY SWAREZ WILL BURN IN HELL FOR BEEING SUCH A WHORE** spray-painted along the wall near the filing cabinets. The bookshelf had been trashed, and the books lay scattered everywhere. It looked as though the contents of both filing cabinets had been emptied and covered in paint. Betty knelt in the middle of this, trying to clean up. She looked up at Daniel’s approach, one lone tear falling down her cheek. 

Daniel's heart simply shattered into a million pieces at the woebegone look on Betty's beautiful face.   
  
“At least,” she sniffed, “They spelled ‘whore’ right.” 


	8. Chapter 8

* * *

  
The woman smirked to herself as she walked up the steps to her building, flipping her long brown hair back over her shoulder. She had to keep her hands in her pockets for almost seven blocks so that no one would see the evidence. The tall, beautiful woman had agonized over a color so that when it dried it looked like blood- it had creeped her out in a movie once and she quickly decided to “borrow” the idea. Even in New York, this close to Halloween, people stared if you walked through the streets with “blood” covered hands.  
  
She took off the coat, showing her red-spattered clothes underneath. She stripped. Naked, she walked to the storage room and uncovered the small bucket. She used the turpentine soaked cloth to wipe off the red paint smears that had made it onto her hands.  _Damn, should have used those gloves. This manicure is ruined_.  She pouted. She tossed it in the garbage can, and stepped into the shower.  

_Maybe that … ugly girl will finally get the hint. Daniel is…. MINE!_

* * *

  
  
  
“What happened?”   
  
Betty blinked and another tear fell down her other cheek. “I just wanted to move in my stuff, to look at the office and acclimate myself with everything. And when I got here, I saw all of this.” She sniffed.  
  
Daniel reached for his handkerchief in his pocket before remembering that he wasn’t wearing a suit.  He knelt down besides her and without thinking pulled her into a hug.    
  
Betty’s lower lip trembled. She bit down on it so that she wouldn’t burst into tears. As insane as everything was, Daniel’s hugs had always had this comforting quality to them; and she loved how he would sort of lean his taller frame down towards her smaller one, kind of hunching his shoulders towards her, even if he didn’t always hug her back. One sad thing about the Meades was that they weren’t the world’s most touchy-feely people. So, when he actually initiated a hug, Betty felt even more special.  His sweatshirt wasn’t the most sweet-smelling thing, but she was sitting here in the middle of a huge mess of paint, so she really couldn’t throw stones.  
  
There was a commotion near the elevator and a flashbulb went off. Daniel looked up to see the security guard muscling a photographer back into the elevator.  Alexis, holding her phone between her ear and shoulder, snapped her fingers twice at one of the police officers and flipped her hand towards the opening doors. The officer stepped into the elevator and pushed the button to shut the doors.  
  
The flash was bright enough that Daniel saw spots for a minute before he blinked them away. He kissed Betty on the forehead (the affectionate gesture almost causing Alexis to drop the phone) and jumped up. “’Lex, make sure someone cleans this up. I’ll be back in fifteen minutes.”   
  
Alexis’s heart gave a funny little jump. Daniel hadn’t called her “Lex” since he was about fourteen. “O-okay.”

She watched her brother start towards the elevator, and then seeing that it was still going down towards the lobby, watched as he sprinted for the stairs.  She heard confused squawking on the other end of her cell phone, and that jarred her into action.   
  


* * *

  
Daniel ran down the stairs, each step of his dress shoes on the steel of the staircase jolting his pounding head.  He had ran out of his loft in such a panic that he had just slid on the first pair of shoes he found.   
  
Daniel pushed himself to go faster. With each step, he felt more and more furious. He could still see the brightness of the paint, against the white walls. Whoever did this would pay for the pallor of Betty’s face…. For making her cry. For taking away the shine of her first managing job. Fucking Bastards.  
  
He burst through the doors to the lobby in time to see the Security guards crossing their arms over their chests, making a barrier to deter the photographer from ascending back to the NYG floor. Daniel wasn’t sure how one 300 lb guy and one guy that maybe weighed 110 pounds soaking wet would stop anyone who was that determined, but he supposed the threat was enough. Daniel pushed through the barrier and looked right at the reporter.  
  
“You know who I am.”  Well, there was no point in beating around the bush.   
  
The reporter took a step back and nodded, clutching his camera protectively. “Of course, Mr. Meade.”    
  
“Right. Well, here’s the deal. I’ll pay you $5,000 for the camera. Right now. With the memory card in it, of course. “  
  
The reporter blinked. He opened his mouth, and Daniel spoke up again, before he could say anything.  
  
“Fifteen thousand. You can go back upstairs with me. I’ll give you any interview you want. But you keep the pictures of what were painted out of the news. Just call it ‘vandalism’ or something.”   
  
The reporter’s eyes bugged out a little. “ _Any_  interview?”   
  
Daniel nodded once, sharply. “You just keep my assistant’s name and what was done to her out of it.”  
  
The reporter held out the camera. Daniel turned it on, and flashed back through the card. The photographer, complete douche or not, took one hell of a picture.  There was only one shot, but it was a good one.   
  
The Daniel in the picture knelt on the floor amidst a sea of papers and books. The red paint on them was blurry and out of focus, but it was easy to see what it was.  The camera had caught him and Betty in the middle of their hug. Daniel’s recognized the look on his own face. His eyes were closed, and there was a faint smile on his lips as he held Betty close. It had all happened extremely quickly, but when he had held her, he had had one moment of absolute serenity, that feeling of absolute _rightness._  Betty’s face on the other hand looked absolutely wrecked. She was leaning into his chest with her face turned just enough that the camera had caught her right as she took a breath for a shuddering sob. Daniel’s chin was on the top of her head. The graffiti had been captured too. Well, part of it. The word “whore” was right above their heads.  
  
Daniel cleared his throat. “Thank you,” he said quietly. He reached into his back pocket for his wallet, and pulled out a card. “Give this to the receptionist tomorrow. She’ll make sure you get in to see me. You’ll have your money then.”  
  
The reporter took the card and left without a word.   
  
Daniel was jarred out of looking at the camera by the shorter security guard’s voice.  
  
“That was a really good thing you just did, Mr. Meade. Betty is a real nice person. I sure am sorry that someone did that to her.”  
  
“So am I.” Daniel turned on his heel and took the elevator back upstairs. On the way up, he pocketed the memory card and deleted all the pictures off of the camera. All but one.  
  


* * *

  
  
Betty was seated in the conference room with one of the officers. She wasn’t crying. She was seated with her shoulders straightened and her hands clenched on her lap. Daniel was glad to see her with her mad on. He started to walk towards her. Alexis stopped him on his way to the conference room.   
  
“You still look like hell. Maybe you should take Betty back to her apartment when she’s finished with her statement.”  
  
“Muh- Beh-  _me?_ ” Daniel thought for a moment about the last time he was at Betty’s apartment. And cringed.  
  
Alexis tried somewhat unsuccessfully not to smirk. “Yes. Take care of her. Tuck her in. Make her soup, for Christsakes. Buy her a puppy. I don’t know. But she doesn’t need to be alone right now.”  
  
Daniel tried to form a coherent sentence, wondering if Alexis knew what she was doing to him. Or possibly for him.  
  
Alexis rolled her eyes. “So, the reporter? Problem?”   
  
“None. There’ll be a rather large sum in this month’s miscellaneous expenses, though.” He absently handed her the camera. His attention was caught as Betty stood up to shake the officer’s hand. He had a strange sense of déjà vu from the night that they had kissed for the first time, and him basically pushing the cop out of his apartment.   
  
Alexis could have been dancing naked in a hula skirt juggling purple polka-dotted chainsaws for all the notice Daniel gave her as Betty walked down the hall towards him. Alexis just shook her head and got back on the phone with the cleaning crew.  
  
Daniel and Betty met in the hallway, completely oblivious to the others surrounding them.   
  
“Hi.”  
  
“Hi.”  
  
“Are you ready to go home? I’ll take you.”   
  
Betty rubbed her forehead as though she had a headache. “I should help clean this up….”  
  
Daniel turned so he was standing next to her. His arm sort of flitted near her shoulders for a few moments before he got the nerve to put it around her. He walked towards the elevators, guiding her along besides him.  
  
“I think it’s okay. Alexis is handling it. Everything will be ready to go for Monday. Let me take you home, okay?”  
  
Betty bit her lip as he pushed the button for the elevator. She could have sworn Alexis had winked at Daniel. Frankly, she was too tired to argue. She had a headache from crying and from lack of caffeine. She was used to having coffee in the morning, and when she didn’t get it… well… things went badly.   
  
They came down the elevator and Daniel nodded at the two security guards still standing sentinel. “Good day, Mr. Meade….Betty.”   
  
“Bye, Eric. And thanks.”  Betty smiled at the security guard over her shoulder, still being ushered through the lobby by Daniel.  She waved and hitched the strap of her purse up over her shoulder.   
  
The cold bite of the October morning startled her, making her glad that she had left the house with her coat on instead of the flannel hoodie she almost wore.  As Daniel started to throw out his arm for a taxi, Betty stopped him with a hand on his arm.   
  
“Hey. Do you mind if we get some coffee?’ Fortunately, from where the Meade building was located, there was a Starbucks within all four directions.   
  
“You sure? We can take a cab there.”   
  
“Please. And I kind of feel like walking, if that’s okay.”  
  
Daniel smiled, somewhat goofily, as he remembered the night they had gone for pizza and karaoke. “Sure. Anything you want. But I’m buying.”  
  
“Of course you are. You’re the rich guy.”  Betty forced herself to forget about everything from the other night, and just focus on one thing at a time. She and Daniel were friends… well… sort of friends. At least she  _thought_ they were still friends, as long as they both steadfastly ignored any lingering awkwardness between them. She could do that. Especially if there was a White Chocolate Mocha involved.   
  
They walked in silence for a few moments, until they got into the busy store. They both paused, as everyone does when they enter a Starbucks, and let the smell of the coffee sort of float over them. The line was ridiculously long, so still sniffing blissfully- they got in the back of the line.   
  
“So, Gio is back from Rome?” Daniel wasn’t sure why he broke the silence with that question, but it jumped out from behind his teeth almost without any conscious control of his own. But he was completely certain that he didn’t want to talk about what had just happened until she brought it up.  
  
Betty looked up at him, raising an eyebrow. “Um, Yes?”   
  
Daniel’s smile looked a bit sickly. He felt a bit like the wolf in the Little Red Riding Hood stories showing a bit too much teeth. “Well, I couldn’t help but notice how happy you were at the office to see him again. How was dinner?”  
  
“Oh! It was pretty great. The whole day had been so beyond sucky, and I really didn’t want any company, but since he had just gotten back I figured I could give him some company. Plus, he brought me sandwiches.”  
  
 _Cheap Bastard._  
  
“Then he showed me some amazing pictures from Rome, and I showed him some of mine from out West. And…you’ll never believe this. He’s getting married and moving back to Italy! I guess her dad is a restaurant owner or investor or something, and liked Gio’s cooking enough to hire him on the spot.”  
  
Daniel heard her words and wondered if it would make the papers if he suddenly started dancing a jig right here next to the biscotti and Chai. Probably not. The press was used to Meades acting inappropriately.  Instead he entertained himself with a few  _She’s not with that Geee-Oh!! She’s not with that Geee-oh! t_ o the tune of a conga, and a few more mental high fives.   
  
They moved up a few spaces in line.   
  
“So, you’re…okay with that?” Daniel mentally slapped himself of the forehead _. Why…? Why fool, would you ask that? Just leave it alone!_  
  
Betty just nodded, but was interrupted by the barista’s cheerful, “Hi. What can I get you this morning?”  
  
Betty opened her mouth to order, when Daniel surprised her.  
  
“Hi. Yeah, I’d like two White Chocolate Mochas, make them large, and maybe one of those brownies to go with it? Hm. Two brownies. Oh, and whipped cream on one of the coffees, please.”  
  
Betty was absurdly touched that Daniel knew how she liked her coffee. It didn’t take the barista long to put their order together. Daniel paid, and they walked out of the coffee shop.   
  
They turned towards her part of town without speaking, just occasionally sipping their coffees. Betty jumped a little when Daniel’s cold hand came down to hold hers, but didn’t say anything. She could blame her blush on the cool weather.

* * *

  
  
Daniel stopped in front of her apartment, horribly aware of what had happened the last time they had stood in almost the same spot. He had enjoyed their walk to Betty’s building, and truth be told, he had spent a good bit of that time trying to plan out what he would say to her in his head. He couldn’t even remember the last time he had been with a woman for such a long time and had gone without speaking. Just him and Betty, sipping coffee until it was gone, then each having their brownie. Neither dropping the other’s hand.  
  
But now….he didn’t know what to say.   
  
Betty gently pulled her hand away from Daniel’s. She had this crazy urge for him to be gone, to be away so that the date- if you could really even call it a date- they had just had wouldn’t be spoiled. She was afraid if either of them said anything, then the moment would shatter like glass.   
  
“Thanks for walking me home. I’m okay now. I think I’ll just go on up to bed.”  
  
“Oh. Uh, I mean...of course. That sounds like a good idea.” Daniel forced a smile.  
  
“Do you want me to call you a cab?”   
  
Daniel remembered that his phone was somewhere on his floor, turned off. “Nah. I think I’ll walk. I left my phone at the loft, anyway.” He smiled again and turned to go.   
  
“Thanks for everything, Daniel.” Betty couldn’t quite manage a smile, but she wanted to thank him for just being there when she needed him.   
  
“Of course. Oh, and Betty? I don’t want you to worry about all that mess back at NYG. Alexis is pissed enough that I’m sure she’ll have it all figured out soon enough. I don’t know why someone would say that about you, but I’ll talk to Human Resources myself. Maybe someone who applied for the job or something was taking some petty revenge. Although,” he paused, his gin making her heart do a funny, slow loop in her chest, “I’m glad we didn’t hire anyone as linguistically-challenged as that working as an Editor-in-Chief.” He turned, waved a little, and shoving his hands in his pockets, set off towards his end of town.  
  
  



	9. Chapter 9

Daniel sighed, shut the door with his foot, and tossed his keys onto the table by the front door. He walked inside, rubbing the back of his neck to try to relieve some of the tension. He hadn’t come to any great understanding while on his walk home, but it certainly had cleared his head.  He yawned, toed off his shoes and walked into his kitchen.  His hangover had miraculously receded. He wasn’t sure if was the adrenaline, the caffeine, or just the crisp air and the long walk, but even the nauseous feeling in his stomach was gone.

But he was damn thirsty.

Daniel tipped back the bottle and drank it down.  As he did so, he saw his cell on the floor. Daniel set the empty bottle onto the counter and walked into his living room to pick it up. Whatever had caused him to throw his phone last night had apparently caused him to really put some force into it. He found the phone all right, but the back and battery had bounced under the couch. Fortunately, nothing was broken beyond repair.  He pushed the power button, and waited for it to power on.  He had six text messages.

_-Call me!-_

_-Had an amazing time the other night. Love to do you again!-_

_-Loser, if you change your mind afterparty at my place Hugs and kisses, Becks.-_

_-D- something’s wrong @ Meade bldg call me back-_

_-DANIEL WHERE ARE YOU??????-_

_-D. I’m coming over. U better B dead!-_

Daniel almost dropped the phone when it buzzed in his hand while he was checking his messages. Betty had taken a picture of herself doing the big fake grin and thumbs up, and set it to show up when she called him. Daniel answered. His heart fluttered when he saw the picture of what he thought of as “his” Betty; Braces, bow, polka-dots, and all.

“Hello?”

“Hi. Um. Okay. I know that you just, um. Left and everything, but if you want to, um come over? Maybe watch a movie? Maybe… er… talk? Or not talk. Whichever.” There was a muffled sound as if Betty had slapped her own hand over her mouth to stem the flow of words.

Daniel coughed to cover a laugh.

“Okay. I totally know you were just laughing then. For the record? You’re a wiener.”

Daniel had to laugh at that. “A wiener? Did you really just…that…a…a… _wiene_ r?!”

Betty rolled her eyes on her end, gritted her teeth and waited out the loud guffaws from the other end.

“I don’t really want to be alone. It’s stupid, I know…but I don’t want to. If you’re busy I can go to my Dad’s.”

That shut him up. He wasn’t laughing  _at_  her after all. “I can be there in an hour. How does pizza sound?”

“Awesome. And, thanks…Daniel.”

He ended the call and fairly danced into his bathroom to take a shower. Daniel stripped and got into the shower. He put some shampoo on his hand and started rubbing it onto his hair. Daniel felt absurdly glad that Betty had called him.  He loved it when she….Wait. Loved it?  _Loved?_  Daniel froze as if someone had just jumped into the shower with him, hands covered in suds, fingernails in mid scrub around his ears. His eyes sprung open. He loved it when Betty needed him. Did that mean that he…. Loved her?  _In_ love? Could he really be in love with Betty Suarez?

* * *

 

The knock on the door spurred Betty into action. She had been sitting on her couch, arranging knickknacks on her coffee table, killing time until Daniel showed up.  It was bad enough that she had dithered in her room for over a half an hour, trying to figure out what to wear.  She didn’t want to look like she had dressed up, but she didn’t want to look like a complete schlub, either. She finally decided that Daniel had seen her wearing sweats at home often enough that he wouldn’t be too surprised to see her dressed similarly in her own home.  So, bright orange sweatshirt with pumpkin on the front it was, then. 

She had taken a shower and brushed her teeth just in case.  (In case of what, she wasn’t sure and refused to examine too closely.) Then kicked all the clutter in her bedroom under the bed. Then…spent the rest of the time just waiting for Daniel to show up. 

When he finally did, she was proud that she had managed to answer the door without knocking anything over, or tripping, or any of the other hugely embarrassing things she was capable of.

He was hanging up his cell, patiently waiting, balancing the pizza with his other hand. He looked much more comfortable than he had this morning.

She just stood there for a moment while the herd of butterflies became a horde.

His smile faltered a little. “Hi.”

She opened the door wide enough for him to come in. “The pizza smells good.” Betty said as she stepped out of the way so that he could enter.

“Double mushroom, double pepperoni and double garlic. I figured no one would be kissing anyone else tonight.” Daniel heard the words come out of his mouth and could have bitten his own tongue off. The garlic comment was just something you said. That or, ‘mmm garlic sure will keep off the vampires,’ some kind of innocuous statement that really didn’t mean anything terribly important.  But saying it here, after everything that had happened was just asking for trouble.  
  
And indeed, he could almost feel the cloud of awkwardness rolling over the room like a fog.  _Shit. It’s amazing that you ever even lost your virginity. Moron._

Betty went rather quickly to the kitchen in search of plates.

Daniel flopped down onto one end of her couch. He heard cabinets opening and closing in the kitchen. He grabbed the remote and started flipping through channels. He was rather amused to find that the cable box was set to the Disney Channel when it was turned on.

Betty came back with some plates, forks, napkins and two sodas. “I hope Coke is okay. That’s all I had.”

Daniel nodded. He took one of the plates and served her some food, then repeated the gesture for himself. 

He took a bite, chewed, and swallowed. Then put the pizza down when Betty (sitting as far away from him on the couch that one person could possibly get) asked him a question.

“So…do you have any ideas about what that was about today? I’ve had bullies pick on me before and I’m not usually one to let it get me down for long, but it really disturbs me that someone would do something so…. Mean. I can’t think of anyone that I know that hates me that much.”

Daniel vividly remembered Betty, so humiliated standing on the street in that black and red leather and so angry that she was almost crying, yet still telling him off, and frowned. She certainly did have bullies pick on her before. Stupid, self-involved bullies too wrapped up in being “wounded” that they couldn’t see what was right in front of them.

He cleared his throat, disconcerted by his thoughts. “Well, they would have either had to sign into the building or have had someone escort them up.”

Betty rolled her eyes. “Oh don’t be silly.  _Anyone_  can get to those elevators. You guys are lucky that some whacked out person hasn’t decided to use MODE for a publicity stunt. Justin’s been up there, my dad’s been up there, delivery people are up and down all the floors all the time.” She shrugged. “It’s easy.”

Daniel nodded. He hadn’t noticed anything like that going on, so used was he to doors opening for him and security people greeting him by name. He vaguely remembered Bradford instilling “more stringent security measures” on all the Meade properties a few years ago, but couldn’t say for sure if any of that was still happening. He made a mental note to share that with Alexis. She was better at details than he was.

“Daniel. Will you answer a question for me? Completely honestly?”  Betty was looking at him, directly into his eyes.

Daniel’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed again. “Of course.”  His voice was a little louder than a whisper, but not much.

“Do you think that I…tried to be…um, intimate with you to get a different job?”

Daniel’s mouth opened in surprise. Out of all the things he was imagining she would say, that wasn’t even in the top ten.

“Wh-what? Why would you think that? Did someone tell you that? That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard of.”

“Is it? People do that thing all the time.” Betty tried not to be hurt at his shocked response. She had asked for honesty, after all.

“Betty, seriously? You would no sooner sleep with me to get a job, than you would…would…pull a fire alarm. Or steal a car.”

Betty blinked. “Well, I did steal some candy once.”

Daniel’s lips twitched. “My God.”  He gasped, putting his hands to his heart.

“Ha-ha. You’re hilarious. I was thirteen. And when my mom caught me she drug me back inside by the ear and at the top of her lungs bemoaned the shame and humiliation I had brought to the family. Then she made me pay double for it out of my allowance. I had to say like 600 Hail Marys on the way home.”

Daniel nodded. “Okay, aside from your obvious early life of crime and dastardly deeds, I doubt that you’ve done anything criminal since. Or dishonest…. For very long anyway. You’re just not that sort of person. When I said that in the car to your dad’s house, I really meant it, Betty. The only time you really went behind my back…well. I said some pretty horrible things at that church because I was so hurt that you would act like all of the rest of the people I knew. I had this pedestal for you of this weird sort of never-do-wrong behavior. When you didn’t fall right along with what I thought… I overreacted.  I should have immediately realized that you would have to have an extremely good reason.” Daniel shook his head. “But that was then. Betty! You’ve done everything there is to do for me. Stuff that is not in any job description. Believe me, no one that matters would ever think you would ever do anything that… sordid. I mean, you run that office, Betty. Everyone sees you working hard from the time you get there until the time you leave.”

He took a sip of soda, and continued.

“And I admit that I’ve kept you late, working. I didn’t really think how that would look to people.”

Betty, who had been so uplifted by his words, now looked down at her lap. “Because no one would think that you would ever…um…sleep with me.”

“No! Well, yeah… okay some people might think that. But not anyone that you’ve ever worked with directly, Betty. They all know how hard you work…” Daniel trailed off as her words fully hit him.

For the first time, Daniel really understood what it had done to her self-esteem to be known as, ”the assistant that even Daniel Meade wouldn’t sleep with.” In a flash he realized what a truly horrible thing his father had done. Sure, it had gotten him Betty, but at the expense of her own self-image?  How hard must it have really been for her those first few days when he had had his head so far up his ass that he couldn’t see past his own inconvenience? How hard was it for her to keep smiling, day after day, having to prove herself over and over and over again to a whole magazine made up of predominately narrow-minded, selfish  people?

Daniel reached out a hand, but wasn’t sure quite what to say or to do.

 He watched as she forced a smile and continued to eat.

“Betty. I… I…. I don’t know quite how to say this. It’s awkward, but I really need to, okay?”

Betty swallowed her bite and stared at him. She opened her mouth to speak, but froze when Daniel reached over and placed one finger over her lips. Both felt a sort of… jolt at the small touch, and the two separated, both trying not to look overly affected by it.

“Don’t talk. We keep getting things…confused and misconstrued. So, I’m going to say this, and _then_  you can respond. Think of it as debate class.”

“I was head captain of the Debate cluh… um. Okay. I have this thing where when I get nervous I start to talk and then….”

She trailed off when Daniel brushed his lips over hers, once. Just a brush of lips, but it had the effect of completely shutting her up. She sat there stunned, but silent.

Daniel raised an eyebrow and waited a moment before continuing to speak.  He did the eyebrow thing when someone had said something especially stupid at meetings. Up popped the eyebrow, then that look, and then patiently waiting them out while they stopped talking. Betty was pretty sure the kiss would be a more efficient tactic. It certainly worked for her. She was still trying to remember her name.

“I need to apologize, first.” He waited second to collect his thoughts. “I think you had the wrong idea when I wouldn’t come upstairs the other night.”

“Oh, Daniel… It’s not a big deal- I…”

He kissed her again. He caught her hand in his, and held it close to his chest. Daniel looked deep into her eyes.  “Betty,” he said tenderly. “Shut the hell up. Please.”

That made her laugh, then cover her mouth. She took her hand back, and he settled back on his side of the couch.

“I would have loved to come upstairs that night. When I said in the car that I was dreaming about that kiss, well… I was. I  _do_. But what made me pause was the thought that you just wanted to....I mean…If we….”

Daniel trailed off. God, this was hard. He was uncomfortably aware that he would only have once chance at this.

“Betty-I-don’t-think-I-could-be-with-you-just-once-or-twice-and-then-go-back-to-being-friends. I  _couldn’t_. You mean too much to me. And I didn’t come up here because… I was afraid that you, you… wouldn’t want me to stay.”  He scooted over closer to her on the couch.

“Oh.” Betty didn’t say anything else.

Daniel bit his lip and continued. “I know that you’re probably not looking for another relationship. Especially with someone like me…I don’t exactly have the best track record with women. I mean with staying with them.”  Daniel’s gaze fell on his half-eaten piece of pizza. He crammed it in his mouth, and chewed.

Betty couldn’t seem to talk.  She watched him out of the corner of her eye as he refocused his intensity from her onto his pizza.  What was she supposed to say to that?

“Can I talk now?” She gave up the pretense of eating and turned so that she was facing him, pulling her knees up onto the couch and hanging onto them with her arms. Her couch was just long enough that with Daniel turned into her as he was, her toes touched his thigh. She could feel its heat through his jeans. She kind of dug her socked feet under his leg, so that her toes were under him.

“I don’t think I’m ready to rush into anything. As much as I might want to.” She ducked her head shyly.  “It’s probably a good thing that you didn’t come upstairs that night. I just felt…well… it wasn’t one of my best moments. You had this… horrified look on your face and I thought that for a moment I had imagined everything in the back of your car.”

“I know that. I realized that I hurt you. That’s what I mean. I’m… not good at this stuff. I don’t want to hurt you but I keep ... The fact that I don’t mean to doesn’t excuse it. And no. if you imagined that then we’re sharing the same delusions.”  He gave her a small smile.

She blushed.  “So…now what?”

Daniel paused. What did he think… he would make his declaration and she would confess her undying love? They’d spend the evening making mad, passionate love on the floor? Still… time just being with her would be nice too. And she was right- it didn’t make any sense to rush into anything. They’d managed to stay friends for this long.  “Well… how about a movie?”

Betty reached over and grabbed for the remote. She brought up the on-demand menu. “What kind of movie are you thinking about? There’s drama… comedy… roma..er… an action movie… Oh HEY! Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix! I haven’t seen that one yet.”

Daniel laughed at her enthusiasm. “I’ve never seen Harry Potter.”

Betty looked at him, horrified.

Daniel rolled his eyes. “Geez, Betty I said I’ve never seen Harry Potter, not that I sacrifice goats on the full moon. It’s just a movie. We can watch whatever you want to.”

Betty uncurled herself from the couch. “Never? As in, you’ve never seen the movies? But you’ve read the books, right?”

Daniel blinked.

“Of course you have. On the way home from the club or between dates. Well,  _that_ , Mr. Meade is just unacceptable.” She went over to her DVD collection (most of which seemed to be Disney movies) and found the right box.

Ten minutes later, Daniel was completely engrossed in the movie.

An hour and a half later, he gave her a  _look_ when she paused the film for a bathroom break.

When it was over, Daniel looked around at the mess they had made of her living room. “Okay, so this Voldiemutt…”

“Voldemort.” Betty rinsed the empty soda cans and put them in her recycle bin.

“Right. Him. So he’s going to come after Harry right? Or is he gone? Well, no he can’t be gone if there’s further sequels.” Daniel quickly cleaned up the remains of the pizza, as Betty crossed to the television to insert the next DVD.

“Right. Well, this one is one of my favorite ones.” She pushed it in and Daniel stretched out on the couch. Betty swatted at his legs with her feet, and he moved them, grumbling under his breath. She settled into the couch and they both were quickly caught up in the movie. She poked Daniel in the side though when he sniffed a few times when Hermione and Harry hugged at the end of the movie. 

He gave her a dirty look, got up from the couch and put in the third movie.

Betty was having a blast watching Daniel watch the films. It was funny- almost everything he was feeling was on his face at one point or another.

Eventually though, both realized that it was almost two in the morning.

Daniel found himself lingering, stretching on the couch. It had been such a comfortable night, he didn’t want to leave. “Sorry we didn’t get to watch the Order of the whatever-it-was.”

“That’s no problem. I had fun re-watching some of the other ones.  So, um do you want to stay over?”

Daniel did a double-take at the abrupt subject change.

Betty shut her eyes, asking God if it was really too much to ask for the floor to swallow her up. Possibly a freak tornado take her to Oz or something.  She blew out her breath so that her bangs fluttered. “That didn’t come out the way I meant it. I just meant to say that it would be okay if you’d like to sleep here. Just sleep.”

Daniel fought the urge to pump his fist into the air and go ‘yesssssss!’What was it about the woman that turned him back into a teenager? “Yeah, it would be kind of hard to get a cab at this hour.”  _Except for the fact you have your own car and driver and three cab companies programmed into your phone._

Betty nodded. “And my bed is plenty big enough for the both of us. That couch is a great couch, but too narrow for someone your size to sleep on comfortably.”  _Except for the fact that Justin, who is just about as tall as Daniel sleeps on it with no complaints almost every other weekend._

Both stood there for a moment, staring at each other.  Daniel broke the silence by yawn so big that it cracked his jaw. After last night and the chaotic morning and tonight’s movie-a-thon, he was actually tired. Betty laughed. “Oh. Yeah, I still have your clothes that you let me borrow. This might be a little bit of a strange sleepover, but I promise not to put your bra in the freezer.” She turned away to go dig up his clothes.

“Thanks.”  His voice was sarcastic. “Wait, to girls really do that? The bra in the freezer thing?” 

“Kimmie Kegan did to me once when I slept over at her house. Her mom invited all the girls in her 6th grade class. I was the only one who wore a bra.”

“Awww.” He caught the clothes that she threw at him.   He turned. “Don’t worry. I think I can handle sleeping on your bed without ravishing you.”

Betty had gone into her room and shut the door to change for bed, so Daniel wasn’t sure if he heard her say “too bad” or if he just imagined it.

* * *

 

Betty was completely comfortable. She was blissfully warm. Although she must have fallen asleep reading again, because she could feel her flashlight against her rear end. She wiggled a little, still sleepily confused. So when she heard the annoying ringing of her phone, she was less than happy about getting  _un_ comfortable. She reached for the phone by her bed, before she realized that while it was indeed ringing, it was not her bedside phone.  She had the cell to her ear and was saying “Hello?” before she had woken up enough to realize that she had just answered Daniel’s phone. When she felt his arms come around her and squeeze her back into the warmth of his body _\- that was NOT a flashlight!!!!-_  her voice came out a little squeakier than her normal morning voice.

“Just who the hell is  _this_?” The voice was accented and crisp.

Betty, not what you’d call a morning person before she was sufficiently caffeinated, snapped back. ”Betty Suarez. Who the hell is _this_?” before she realized that she might not want to know what woman would be calling Daniel at the crack of dawn. 

Betty was quickly distracted from the squawk of words on the phone when Daniel scraped his teeth over the soft skin behind her ear.  She must have made some sound into the phone, because the next thing she heard was something less than complementary on the other end of the phone.

“Look. Can I take a message? Daniel’s a little occupied at the mo _-oh!-_ moment…”

“Yes. You can tell him that I don’t appreciate that he stood me up last night.”

Betty started to respond, but the other woman hung up before she could.

Daniel flipped her so that he was looming over her.

“Hi.” He looked amazing with his hair all sleep tossed. “What was that about?”

“I think I answered your phone by mistake.  Some lady said you stood her up.” Daniel had bent down to kiss her jaw line. Betty’s head tilted back. She felt her body tighten at the sensation of his lips, and the heat of his body over hers, pressing against her hip and thigh…

“I…” nibble “didn’t have…” nip. “Any plans with…” He licked the spot he nipped. “anyone but you.” 

Betty’s hand tightened on Daniel’s phone.  “Um… I thought we were going to go slow…”

She could feel Daniel grin against her skin. “I can go slow. I can go so slow you’ll beg me to…”

_Eeep!_

Betty, disturbed by the phone call more and more as she continued to think about it, pushed at his shoulders. “Daniel. Um, Daniel? I really don’t want to do this with morning mouth. It’s not something I would inflict on anyone. Plus, it’s my first day at work. I kinda need to…”

Daniel’s head snapped up. She watched as he woke up fully, and sprung back over to his side of the bed. “Right! I didn’t mean to…well, okay I did, but I didn’t think that… I just wanted to… because I woke up and you felt so good and I don’t normally wake up with women and… um okay. Right. I’ll just go, okay? Okay. Right." 

He kissed her really quickly on the lips then caught his breath as she flung her arms around him, pulling him down on top of her. It was meant to be a playful hug, but it made him feel all the soft, warm heat of her body.  He kissed her again, not noticing any morning mouth, or anything negative, just this insane need to continue where they had left off.  She was kissing him back, and Daniel thought he was dreaming for a moment. Her mouth was exactly as he remembered, although he could feel her retainer which was a little weird. That convinced him he wasn’t dreaming.

She wiggled, and her legs fell open. He settled against the core of her. Both of them caught their breath. Daniel ignored the little warning voice in his head while he continued to kiss her, making it as erotic as he knew how so that Betty had no wrong ideas of what he wanted to do with her. To her. Their tongues met and slid against each other’s.

Daniel could feel her heart slamming against her ribs.  His hand came up between them to cover one breast. Betty’s back arched, pushing the hardened nipple into his palm. She was making this amazing noise in the back of her throat, and he was desperate to continue to hear it.

The warning voice was using a bullhorn now. He let his other hand slide slowly down her stomach. He felt the waistband of her pajamas against the tips of his fingers. He could feel the muscles in her tummy fluttering.  Daniel knew that it would just take one quick yank and she would be naked and open to him, and he could be buried inside of her, and oh God he didn’t think he had ever wanted anything so badly in his life.  And that made him pause as the warning voice sent up a klaxon-like wail.

Betty’s hand flitted onto his wrist. He could feel her indecision. Her legs twitched and stretched restlessly. He was just about to pull away from her completely when her hand tightened on his wrist.

He looked up the line of her body. She was biting her lip and looking down at him. Her eyes seemed enormous in her face. “Betty..?” His voice was raspy. He had to try twice before getting anything out. “Can I…Can I touch you? I promise not to do anything that you don’t want me to.” And he would keep that promise if it killed him. Her body language was fairly shouting that she wasn’t sure about having sex with him.  If he were a better person, he would just leave her alone and go reintroduce himself to his hand. But he couldn’t leave her now. Not like this.

She nodded, still breathing heavily. Daniel felt an almost imperceptible tug on his wrist. He let his fingers sneak under the waistband of her pajamas. She sucked in a deep breath as his fingers slowly brushed over the springy nest of curls.  Betty whimpered when one finger slid between the folds of skin, and into her.

God, she was wet. Daniel felt her muscles close around his invading finger. He could feel her wetness, and started to slowly, so slowly that his hand was almost shaking with the effort, stroke the inner walls.  He could feel the muscles shake and tighten. Oh god. He wanted to be inside her so badly.

Betty responded with a cry that made his throat go dry. He responded by starting to move his finger in and out, then in a circle, always with just a little more pressure.  Then he added another finger. When he slid his fingers out, and flicked the little nubbin of flesh he found there, her hips bucked. He used her own wetness to lubricate her so that when he started stroking, all she felt was wetness and heat.

Daniel brought the fingers that had been inside of her to his lips, breathing in her scent. “Betty….?” He whispered, flicking his fingers over her a little faster.

She opened her eyes, and looked down of him, dazed.

“Can I … taste you?” Daniel wanted to be very clear; he didn’t want to spook her. But he found to his surprise, that by speaking exactly what he was going to do, exactly what he wanted to do was in its own way erotic. He could watch the effect his words had on her.

Daniel turned so that his lips were on her hip. He kissed her there, and watched up the line of her body as realization of what he wanted to do dawned on her.  Her hands came up to cover her sex.

“I-I-I…” she stuttered. “I’ve n-never…”

Daniel remembered all at once her stumbling declaration while they were at dinner.  " _Not that I know what that sounds like, really. Although I think I heard Amanda getting crazy with some underwear model in the janitor's closet. And come to think of it, once I rented a mov- um. yeah."_   He was surprised by a feeling of doubt. Was this too tawdry? Didn’t she deserve something more romantic? They weren’t even all the way undressed, for Pete’s sake.  It’s just that he lost his head whenever he had her close to him…..

He kissed her hands, and then pushed up so that he could see her. His body wasn’t very happy with what his mouth was about to say, but he didn’t think his conscious could handle  _not_  saying it.

He kissed her gently. “I was going too fast again, wasn’t I?” She looked at him from only a few inches away.

“A little,” she whispered back.

“Okay.” He tried not to sound disappointed.

“Daniel? I liked it… um, before.”

Daniel closed his eyes.  _Thank God._ He leaned down and met her lips with his.  Heat flared between them again.  He was so intent on touching her again, on feeling how well she responded when his fingers slid back inside of her  _(and oh God that was just to his fingers what would it be like with they were together properly)_ that when he felt Betty’s hand against his shorts he thought he would have a heart attack.

Her long fingers slipped under his own waistband and wrapped around his length.  She slid the thumb of her hand over the head of his erection, spreading the slippery liquid she found there around. She tightened her fingers and Daniel had to stop kissing her for a moment to remember how to breathe. He renewed his own efforts, determined to make sure she came with him. 

He rocked up onto his knees, pulling her up with him. He was shocked when Betty took control, kissing him and simultaneously working her hand over him. Daniel felt himself started to tighten, and slipped a second finger into her, curling them up and moving so that he could reach her clit with his other thumb.

That did it.

He felt her hand tightening, and saw her head fall back. The little cries turned into one loudish moan; her throat worked as she cried out.  Daniel clutched her body to his and felt his own orgasm as she collapsed against him.

They both just leaned against each other for a moment, catching their breath.   “So,” Betty started with forced cheer. “How about breakfast?”  

Daniel laughed weakly and kissed her forehead. “How about a shower, instead? You have a big day and I need to go home and change, anyway.”

They disentangled themselves. Betty rolled off the bed, somewhat awkwardly.  Daniel grabbed her wrist before she disappeared into the bathroom. “Betty.”

It took a lot of courage for her to look up at him. “Yes?”

“You’re not… upset are you? I know that this sounds stupid, but I didn’t want to be rushed for our first time. That’s the reason I didn’t do… that we didn’t… that’s the _only_  reason I didn’t call us both in sick and spend the whole morning and afternoon in that bed with you.”

Betty’s smile was shy, but still radiant. She stood up on her tiptoes and kissed him on his cheek. “I know. And thank you. I’m sorry that I freaked out a little bit.”

Daniel smiled.  “Whatever you feel is exactly right. There’s no timetable or script to follow. Now hurry up before you’re late.”

 

* * *

 

The woman threw the phone across as far from herself as she could, cursing and screaming her rage at the empty room.

Apparently that fucking disgusting whore couldn’t take a hint. She would just have to make sure she got the message next time.

* * *

 


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My **very first** Detty fic takes place after 03x03’s Crimes of Fashion. How dare canon get in the way of my fanfic? Some of the events in 3x04 ‘Betty Suarez Land’ will show up…just differently. Thanks again to survived_it_all for being the most awesome of awesomeist awesomely awesome betas.

Daniel smiled at Amanda as he walked by her desk into his office. He was whistling and there was an actual spring to his step.  Actually, he beamed at her- such huge one hundred watt smile, that Amanda almost lost the gum she was chewing when her mouth dropped open in surprise. She had expected a grumpy Daniel or even a snarky Daniel… not a I-had-the-best-weekend- _ever_ Daniel.  After what had happened at NYG (stuff like that spreads like wildfire- and Amanda heard it from the temporary receptionist who heard it from an accountant who heard it from an assistant editor, who actually SAW it) combined with that fact that it was her sitting in the assistant’s desk, an not Betty, Amanda was flat-out shocked that he was even displaying any emotion other than one likened to a bear with an injured paw.

The phone rang, distracting her from her surprise, and she got back to work.

It was about an hour later when Alexis breezed by Amanda into Daniel’s office leaving the scent of her expensive floral perfume in her wake. Amanda had started to say something remembering Betty’s admonishment to “not let anyone in his office if they haven’t cleared it by you first” but one frosty look from the elder Meade had frozen Amanda in her Dolce and Gabbana heels.

Amanda decided that now would be an excellent time to go and take her first break.

 

* * *

 

“Well?” 

“Well, what?”

Alexis rolled her eyes. Her little brother was practically bouncing in his seat.  “Well, either everything went okay yesterday, or you have a rather severe bladder issue. Can you please quit wiggling for a few minutes and relax?”

Daniel looked up over the letter he was proofing and fought to keep the dopey grin off his face. Alexis could always read him like a book.

“I assume you haven’t seen page six yet?” Alexis waved the newspaper in front of Daniel’s face.

That wiped all the goofiness out of Daniel’s mood. “That son of a bitch! I took his camera, and offered to pay him a substantial sum if he kept that out….” He snatched the newspaper from Alexis’s hand and turned to the right section.  “I’m calling a law…oh.”

> _Daniel Meade’s new squeeze?  Things are looking pretty serious for the heir to the Meade fortune. Sources claim that after an unconfirmed attack on Meade property, Mr. Meade escorted his longtime assistant, Ms. Betty Suarez, to the door of what is either her apartment or the couple’s meeting spot for an afternoon of more delightful pursuits. Things are looking pretty cozy! Obviously Ms. Suarez is reaping the perks in the corporate world, but the real question is… does the job come with Dental?_

The picture accompanying the article was a candid shot of Betty and Daniel holding hands, both sipping their coffee and crossing at a crosswalk. The camera happened to have caught Daniel looking over at Betty. The look on his face was tender, smiling at something known only to him.

“Oh, boy.” 

Alexis flopped down onto one of the orange chairs. “Jeez, Daniel, haven’t you ever sat in one of these things before? They’re about the most uncomfortable thing…. Where was I? Oh yeah. So… your weekend went well? Usually there’s total crap in this section, but something makes me think there’s a grain of truth to this.”

Daniel was still staring at the look on his face in the picture. “Yeah. We’re fine,” he said absently.

“Great. Because her office is being repainted…again…and I am having the NYG offices move in here temporarily. Kind of like with what’s-her-name and the sprinkler malfunction. The conference room was being used for a few things, but I had your assistant reschedule them.”

Daniel blinked at her over the newspaper. “Why…here? Not that I’m complaining, but that seems kind of…awkward. They have their own conference room.”

Alexis just smiled. “All part of my master plan, little bro, I think it would be good for some of these people around here to see Betty leading a team of people, instead of getting you coffee. That girl is going to do some amazing things, and it’s probably better to just let people get used to seeing her working. Plus, it will be pure entertainment for me to watch you two try to keep things professional and maintain a working relationship.”

Daniel made a face at her, and she laughed. “You know…” he started, then stopped, kind of embarrassed.

“Know what, that there’s a security camera in the conference room?”

“No, that...wait. There is?!” Daniel gaped at her for a minute.

Alexis nodded solemnly, and then ruined it by laughing again. “What were you going to say?” She asked as she stood up.

“Oh… it’s silly.”  Daniel looked down at his shoes for a second.

Alexis looked up at him and raised an eyebrow.

“Just that… this is nice. You and me… joking. Not being at odds with one another.” Daniel it blurted out in a nervous rush.

Alexis had the bizarre urge to hug him. It  _was_  nice. It just showed how big of a heart her little brother had, that he could forgive her for everything she had done. Definitely nice.

* * *

 

Betty arrived to the Meade building with some trepidation. She had wanted to have everything ready for today but with one thing and another had been…distracted.  She had to force her mind away from that mornings’ interlude. Or she was afraid her legs would give out and she’d melt into a little puddle of gooiness in front of everyone. Practically every time she closed her eyes, she could remember what Daniel felt like, remember the intense look on his face, the feel of his lips hardening on her neck when he…

_Yes. Well. MUST focus._

She had dressed in one of her new skirts, but felt more comfortable putting a sweater vest over the silk top that went with it. She didn’t think anyone needed to be that aware of her cleavage, thank you very much. Betty had put on some striped tights to match the blue of the sweater, and was good to go. She couldn’t find her ‘B’ necklace, and hadn’t for a few days. That was disturbing because it had been a gift. She loved that necklace.

So, dressed to the nines, she waved to the security guard (the same one, Mike, who had been working yesterday) and pushed the button for the elevator. The car was almost full, but she managed to squeeze in just before the annoyed man in the business suit pushed the door close button. Not willing to let one schmuck ruin her day, Betty just smiled brightly and pushed the button for her floor.

When the elevator opened, her smile faltered a little. She had half-expected to see those horrible words on what would have been her office staring right at her. Instead, she was shocked to find that someone had spray painted red lines and squiggles all over the walls of the other offices, it looked fun and modern and she was surprised at how much she loved it.

“You must be Betty.”  The voice was pure Southern Belle. “Hi. It’s nice to meet you. I’m Kelly, one of the assistant editors here at New York Guide.” Betty smiled and shook the hand that Kelly offered. Kelly was dressed in jeans and a tunic-style top, with what looked like Doc Martens peeking out from under the legs of her jeans. Her black, curly hair was pulled back into a ponytail.  “I can’t believe the craziness. There was some horrible vandalism over the weekend, and we’re going to be temporarily relocated to the MODE offices. They have the biggest floor in the building… _oh_. But I guess you know that.” Kelly pushed her glasses up onto her nose and blushed.

Betty didn’t know what to answer first. It was such a nice change to be greeted by someone who seemed so kind, that it kind of threw her off from the greeting she had practiced in her head on the way up from the elevator for a few minutes.

The elevator doors _pinged_ and slid open. Alexis emerged, smiling at Betty. There were about ten people dressed in maintenance uniforms behind her.

“Good morning! Sorry for all the confusion, but you’ll be glad to know that all of the Editor-in-Chief stuff, files, materials, computer, etcetera have already been relocated. There was some water damage in your new office Betty, so we’ve kept the door locked.”

Betty knew there had been no such thing, but was so absurdly touched by the gesture that she had to blink hard twice so that she wouldn’t cry.  She had been horrified to think that the people that she had to work with, people that she would be technically be working over, would know what whoever-it-was had spray-painted and done to her office.

“Oh. So we’re being moved to....Mode?”

Alexis smiled a weird, smug little smile that immediately had Betty suspicious. “ _Ab_ solutely. It shouldn’t take very long for the painters to finish in here. We went ahead and moved the other magazine a couple of floors down during the interim. We might as well do the whole floor!”

She stood aside as the parade of people walked past. Computers, printers, power cords, as well as portable boxes of files all were packed up. Betty, eyes narrowed in thought, smiled brightly (trying to hide the fact that she was gritting her teeth) at Alexis. “Ms. Meade? Do you mind if I have a few words? In  _private_?”  Betty smiled politely at Kelly and walked to the conference room with Alexis. When they were sufficiently out of earshot, Betty hissed, “What are you thinking? I can’t do this there! We’d be a complete distraction.”

Alexis’s eyebrows raised.

Betty’s hands came down onto her hips.

Alexis’s brows narrowed.

Betty’s foot started to tap.

Alexis threw up her hands. “Oh, all right! So  _yes_ , there are several places you and your staff could have been moved, but I decided that it would be easier to just put you somewhere familiar. I was only thinking of you, Betty.”

Betty didn’t come right out and say, Oh, yeah... right…. But her face certainly expressed what she was thinking.

Alexis leaned down for a conspiratorial whisper. “Oh, and by the way, a little birdie just happened to tell mother that Daniel has a new… _Girlfriend_.” With that, she turned on her heel and walked off. Wherever those heels clacked, chaos disappeared leaving behind order and people who now had a purpose.

It took Betty three minutes to get her tomato-red face under control.

* * *

 

Wilhelmina watched the parade of office equipment without comment. Marc, who was standing next to her, knew what that cold expression on her face meant though. Willi was Up To Something. Well, that or she was constipated, which he really didn’t want to think about.

Wilhelmina growled something under her breath and stalked into her office. Her door slammed so loudly, a glass paperweight sitting too close to the edge of Marc’s desk slid towards the edge. He tried to reach for it, but the paperweight, a gift from Cliff, fell over the side and crashed to the floor. 

“Oh, damn.” He huffed and bent over to start picking up pieces. He loved that silly little thing. It was a glass bubble when someone looked down at it, filled with smoky jade and cerulean glass, but when he were to flip it over, he could see the inscription Cliff had added.  _Something beautiful to brighten up a bad day as much as seeing you brightens up my whole week._  It was dopey and sentimental and he absolutely adored it.

He saw Amanda scurry over out of the corner of his eye. “Oh, no!” She wailed in a whisper and bent to help him pick it up. It was hard enough glass that it had luckily cracked in only a few pieces, but it was still ruined. Marc cast a fuming look towards Wilhelmina’s closed door.  He wasn’t sure what he could do, but whatever Betty needed to make this job of hers successful, she would have it. Even if it was just by stealing post-its from the supply closet. Even if it meant going to Daniel and offering his own services. He adored Willie- on the brief occasions when she wasn’t being a class-A Bitch. But as he knelt by his desk, holding the pieces of glass in his hands, he figured:  _Enough was enough,_

* * *

 

Betty looked at the assembled people around her. Kelly she had met; she and Bobby were both co-assistant Editors. Bobby looked a lot like a male version of Kelly; more like he should be working in a coffee shop writing poetry than at a magazine owned by a major corporation. Chuck (An older man who looked like his face had been caught permanently sniffing a lemon.) was the photographer, and Joey was the staff writer. Joey reminded her a lot of Henry actually. He was tall and had thick glasses, somewhat like hers.  He was holding a cup of coffee by the Styrofoam rim with his lips, and two jelly donuts in one hand, with a bunch of napkins in the other. He passed one donut to Bobby, and sat down, giving Betty his full attention.

“Well! It’s nice to finally get to meet everyone. I’m so sorry for all the craziness and relocating, but hopefully it won’t be for long. Now, I understand that we are in the middle of switching from print to an online zine, so tell me what Debbie normally did. How do you guys want to divvy up the projects? I assume that you already have some sort of plan….”

And with that Betty dove right into her new job. She even forgot that it was temporary.

* * *

 

Daniel realized that he had a problem.

He could see Betty, (funny how that happened when he managed to walk by the conference room about seven times a day) and he could sometimes catch up with her during lunch, but they both had such crazy schedules that week that they hadn’t been able to even get together for dinner. While it sucked to not be able to interact with her as much as he was used to, he admired how she had thrown herself into her work. It had been almost a week already (thirty-six hours, fifteen minutes to be exact) and from what Amanda told him, she spent almost all her time working.

Daniel had even tried to stay late on Wednesday, but she had three people there.  His office was situated such that he could see straight through to the conference room. He could see the rapport she had with her coworkers. He could literally watch them bounce ideas off each other, could watch her joke and laugh with them...

And the problem was he was jealous.

And that certainly wasn’t very attractive. 

Truth was he was a desperate man. And desperate men could be counted on desperate measures. For Daniel, that meant one Marc St. James.

* * *

 

It was late. Betty stretched and listened to the vertebrae in her neck pop. Well, they had done it. It was Friday evening, and her first real week as an Editor was put to bed. Their magazine had gone live online, and had been wildly successful. There had been over 250,000 hits in the first three hours. To put it mildly, she was completely psyched.

Betty had been surprised to note that she had worked well with her “crew.” She hadn’t wanted to seem overly tyrannical, so had approached them with the feeling of more togetherness, which they seemed to appreciate. She had been upfront with them, but as Bobby had said, “You obviously know your stuff.” That had made her feel absurdly proud of herself. And truly, she had proven her worth. They had worked several late nights, and seemed to have bonded over the Chinese and Thai food. And it was just the first week!

She was walking to the supply closet in search of binder clips (What was it with people that they always stole the binder clips? What, they couldn’t stop at Staples like everyone else?) when it happened.

The footstep had come up out of nowhere. She had had just the briefest of moments to tense up, before the gloved hand was across her mouth, and she was being pulled back into someone’s body. The person was taller then she was, but her panicked mind couldn’t recognize who it was that held her. They picked her smaller body up and hustled her into the dark supply closet.

She brought her foot  _back_ , and  _up_ , and had the pleasure of hearing her captor grunt in pain. She had just a few minutes to see that the room was eerily lit with a red-tinged emergency light, casting everything into deep shadows before her glasses were gently removed from her face, and a blindfold slipped over her face. Betty started to struggle in earnest, doing everything in her power to get away. She could tell that there were two people; one tall and one shorter, but she couldn’t tell who was holding her and who was in front of her

“Betty. Relax. It’s okay.”  The whispered voice was female and familiar. Betty sagged in relief against the person holding her. “Amanda?” and with one, there was the other… “And  _Marc_?”

“Shhhh!”  A piece of duct tape was placed across her lips. She was picked up and tossed over Marc’s shoulder. She lost her breath, which is probably a good thing because she was just about ready to start screeching like a drunken fishwife. Of course with the tape all people would have heard was a “mmmmph!” or two, but it would be a seriously  _pissed_  mmmmph.

“Okay you look. I have my  _little”_ \- he coughed, and if Betty could have she would have smacked him- “Chimichunga all wrapped up. Let’s book it before she kicks me again.”

Betty was feeling nauseous from being upside down as well as having her stomach jostled against Marc’s rather bony shoulder. She closed her eyes behind the blindfold and bided her time. Her foot had a long overdue appointment with Marc’s testicles, and it was itching for some payback.

She felt the rising of the elevator, and heard the two Stooges having a furiously whispered conversation. She couldn’t hear it between the pounding of her heart and the feeling of the blood having rushed to her head.

_Ping!_

The two stopped their conversations as the door slid open.

“Well hel---What the  ** _fuck_**  did you two do to her???”

Betty recognized Daniel’s shout and found herself actually wincing for Marc and Amanda’s sake. She felt Daniel’s hands on her, helping her to the floor. Betty could tell she was on the roof by the wind and sudden cold snap of air.

“Well she kicked me and…”

“But you said to bring her no matter what and….”  The two spoke at the same time like teenagers who had been caught sneaking out.

“I said  _convince_  her, not  _kidnap_ her, dammit!” Daniel said furiously, removing the blindfold. He started to take off the tape on her mouth, but she winced.  Daniel sent a truly evil-looking glare at Marc and Amanda. Betty happened to be standing so she could see the two of them. Marc was furiously pushing the button to cover the elevator. Amanda was almost in tears. She looked at Betty so apologetically that she felt sorry for her.

Kinda.

“This is gonna hurt.” Daniel said softly, kissing the tape where her lips were. He started on one corner of tape, making noises as if he was amputating her arm with a dull knife. “Oooh….Okay I have it started…ow….”

Betty gave him a  _look_ , batted his inept fingers out of the way and ripped the tape off with one quick jerk.  “Ow.” She winced. She looked up at Daniel who was leaning down protectively over her.

“Hi.....”  He whispered, moving his head down just a tiny bit.

“Hi.” Betty said back, tilting her head back just a smidge.

Right before Daniel kissed her (or she kissed him) Betty saw a fully little half smile flit over Amanda’s lips. She winked. Marc’s mouth just dropped open. Betty could almost hear him thinking,  _Holy shit. I just kidnapped his girlf.. wait. BETTY?? And DANIEL??_  before the elevator doors shut, and Daniel’s lips touched hers and she was completely oblivious anyway, because really thinking was overrated when that amazing mouth of Daniel’s was occupied in reacquainting itself with every inch of hers.

They broke apart when both remembered that oxygen was sort of necessary.

Betty shivered, and rubbed at her mouth. Her lips were tingling, and it felt as though three layers of skin had been ripped off her face. Oh well. It would save her from bleaching. 

Daniel reached up with both of his hands to tilt her head back again. “Hi.” He said.

“You said that already,” she whispered, smiling.

“Uh-hmm.” He mumbled it and kissed her forehead, then each eye. “I’m so sorry that they scared you,” he whispered pulling her close to him. She shivered at the contact of the heat of his lips on her cold skin.

“So what’s this all about?”  Betty leaned into the heat of his body (and his coat!) shivering just a little. “You couldn’t have just called me?”

Daniel opened his mouth, but froze without speaking. Suddenly his “Well, I wanted to see you so I made Marc and Amanda get you for me because I felt like you weren’t paying me enough attention,” seemed a little high-handed.  “I just wanted to see you for a minute.  To invite you out to dinner.”

“All of this was for a date?” Betty looked up at him with one eyebrow raised. Then she remembered. “Oh, crap. I have a family thing with Hilda. I don’t think I can get out of it. Well, to tell the truth, I don’t really want to. I kind of miss her.”

“Betty, I don’t expect you to rearrange anything for me. You’re busy, I’m busy; we’re both busy people. I get that. But I do want to see you.” He leaned down to kiss her again. “I miss you.” His voice had roughened enough that Betty found herself shivering for another reason entirely.

Betty put both of her hands on his shoulders. “Not to change the subject, but do you think that maybe we could go inside? I’m freezing my butt off.”

Daniel brought his arms around her. He picked her up, loving the girlish little squeal she gave when her feet left the concrete of the roof. Today, she was wearing a pants suit, which suited him perfectly.  He tickled her a little to get her to squeal again.

Betty laughed, wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist.  She loved this goofy version of Daniel. She’d never really saw this version of him. His hands drifted down over her butt, and he leaned in a little closer, hitting the elevator button with his elbow.

“Feels perfectly fine to me. So, are you doing anything tomorrow?”

“Nope.”

“I have some PR stuff in the afternoon, but I’ll be done by six at the latest. How about we meet at Masa at seven?’

“Daniel, people don’t just ‘meet’ at Masa…you have to have a reservation for like three months in advance to get in there.”

“I know I overheard you telling Christina that you would like to see what it’s like.”

The elevator doors opened, and Daniel swung them into the elevator. He walked so that her back was against the far side, and then stepped even further into her body space.

“Daniel! That was months ago! Of course, it would be incredible to experience such a new and different culture, and the food is reputed to be sublime, but… _mmmmmph_.”

Daniel shut her up with his mouth.

They separated for air around floor ten.

“Trust me. If you want to eat there, then we will.”

He leaned back in to resume the kissing. Unfortunately, Daniel had completely forgotten about the security camera….


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should warn you that there’s some Daniel/OFC in here Also, some disturbing imagery... 
> 
> Also much drama. All My Children, eat your heart out. You can see specific TW in the end notes.

Okay, so he was nervous. Getting reservations were no problem.  He had ordered hundreds of roses that were to be delivered and set up to his apartment around eight-thirty.  He had paid Orville, the building super to go in and light candles. Daniel planned to call him about twenty minutes before he and Betty arrived so that everything would be perfect.

It was vital that everything was perfect for this evening. Betty deserved more than just some flowers and candlelight, but … well…. That was the best that he could come up with. He wanted the whole night to be beautiful for her…be special. He wanted her to have everything when he told her…well, what he should have said a long time ago.

And that scared the hell out of him. What the hell did he, Daniel Meade, know about perfection? He remembered with perfect clarity the giddiness he felt right before Sofia spoke on national television. He still remembered the stark terror he felt when in the back of the town car when he knew that his Betty was in the loft with Renee. Everything important in his life had been screwed up at one time or another. Why should this be any different? No. No, he couldn't think like that. This would be better. It was  _Betty._ It had to be.

He looked at himself in the mirror and straightened his tie.  But that was hours away. He had called to handle every little detail himself. He had food catered and waiting in the fridge. There was wine, water, a variety of sodas…everything he could think of that Betty might like.  But it was killing him that that he had to get through this stupid party first.  PR for Meade. Him, some photographers, Alexis, and some past and possible future present models for the magazine all schmoozing around an open bar. Fun times.  Actually, any other time in his life he would be thrilled to have the excuse to get shit-faced with a bunch of women, but he just wasn’t into it today. 

He washed his hands and picked at his hair a few times to make sure that nothing looked out of place, moving a few strands this way and that.  Just two hours…three tops and he could go meet Betty.

Just two hours.

* * *

 

People kept putting drinks into his hand. He had done a really good job of making it  _look_ like he was drinking without actually drinking very much, but he was tired as all hell. Daniel had found a corner and had just sat down, when a woman in a red dress came over to him.

 _Shit._  Daniel cursed inwardly. He knew her. They had been together a couple of weeks ago…well…maybe three weeks. He couldn’t remember exactly. Which was strange because he was absolutely positive that he hadn’t had sex since…well…the first time he and Betty kissed. The point was that he knew her…but had no idea who she was.

“Hey there, stranger. I brought you a drink.”

Fantastic. Just what he needed. He  _so_  didn’t want to deal with this right now.

He forced a smile, and took the drink. It looked to just be a glass of scotch. Surely he could suffer through one glass of scotch. He knew Alexis had bought the good stuff. One glass and he would be on his way. Right? He had schmoozed enough. 

“Hey thanks. That’s just what I needed.” He winked and took a sip. Strange. It tasted kind of… salty. Freaking New York water.

“So, how come you never called me? I left you a couple of messages and like…it was such an amazing night that I thought for sure you would want another one.” She pouted at him.

Daniel was at a complete loss for words. To stall, he took another drink of his scotch. “Well, I’ve been busy you know. Lots of things going on.”  Something was nagging at him at the back of his mind that something just wasn’t right. His throat was horribly dry. Taking another sip of the drink, he tried to blazon his way through the conversation, already hoping that it would be over soon.

“I know. I’ve seen the newspapers.” The woman’s smile changed, becoming more feral.

Daniel shook his head, hard as the woman’s face and the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland smiles became intermingled in his head. He could actually see one smile superimposed on another.  He tossed back the rest of the drink.  “News--papers?” He asked stupidly.

“Well of course. I’ve followed your career rather closely. How else would I know everything that I needed to know…”

Daniel tuned her out as a shooting pain seemed to stab into his head behind his eyeball. Her voice had taken on a droning quality as If he were swimming away from her down a long tunnel. Something was wrong.  He was seeing things.

“…to be your wife?”  She finished and smiled at him.  The woman leaned forward to kiss him, her tongue flitting along the seam of his lips.

Daniel actually recoiled for a moment, before his stomach turned over. A strange lassitude seemed to be settling over his limbs. His brain was sluggish. He felt like he had been drinking for hours and hours and it was all just now catching up with him. His brain screamed at him while his mouth opened and he kissed her back. It was as though his actions had no tie to his brain. Walk into a dark room? Turn on a light switch. Beautiful woman kisses you? Kiss back. 

When she pulled him up by the hand, he stumbled as vertigo slammed into him, causing the room to spin crazily. Her arms came around him to steady him.

“Aww, poor baby, are you not feeling well? Don’t worry. Bianca will take care of everything.” She steered him through the crowded room. Daniel thought he saw Alexis glaring at him furiously as he left, but the room was tilting crazily. He had tried acid once in college while at a Rage against the Machine concert. The effects were similar. Daniel could hear music around him, and almost see its patterns swirl around like a light show. Voices were muted as if he wasn’t in the same room as the speakers. 

The woman guided him downstairs where his car was waiting. The driver hardly batted an eye to see him being supported by a strange woman. Daniel found himself kind of pushed into the backseat, then she got in besides him. The driver shut the car door, and the woman was kissing him again.

He wanted to throw up. His brain was screaming at him to  _stop… this is crazy…. You have to stop her…._  But his body was on auto-pilot.   When his car pulled up in front of his apartment and Daniel saw his super skulking around in the hallway, he thought his heart, already beating erratically, would pound itself out of his chest.

“Oh-ho! Mr. Meade, had a little too much to drink, have we? And this must be Betty! I didn’t get your call, sir so I didn’t,” Orville lowered his voice “get to light everything up!”

The woman’s hands tightened painfully on Daniel’s arm, the nails digging hatefully into his flesh. “No, I’m not Betty. But she’ll be joining us later. Don’t worry, I’ll handle everything. You have a good night now.  Daniel and I have some things to take care of.” She smiled angelically at the other man and steered Daniel into the elevator.

“So you invite that whore here? Where  _we_  made love? Oh, you’ll pay for that. Wasn’t my little message in her office enough for you to get the hint? You should have made sure she stayed away from you.  You just really should have.”

_Oh, no…. Betty!_

* * *

 

Betty was freezing.

Whoever had invented pantyhose should be shot and killed. Possibly killed _then_  maimed. She had worn a skirt that was kind of long and flowy. It looked kind of boho hipster, but she loved the feel of the layers of fabric around her. But they were gauze-like and not exactly warm. Every time the wind blew through the fabric of the skirt, Betty thought about the perfectly good sweatpants she had at her house. The top was low-cut and sliky enough to make it dressy. Over that she had just a light shawl instead of her big poufy coat. 

She had wanted to look good for Daniel.  Her makeup was even perfect.  She hadn’t worn a lot, but enough to make her feel like she was dressing up to go out for dinner.

Had she known that Daniel was going to be late, she would have worn sweats under her skirt and her jacket- sexy be damned! She looked at her cell’s clock read-out.  It was already 7:30.  The owner of the restaurant had come out to ask if Mr. Meade would be joining her inside, or if she wanted to give up her table. Betty could feel the stares of the people waiting to get in.

Flustered, she tried to call him, but got no answer.

That was weird.  Was something wrong?

So now she was freezing  _and_  worried. Fifteen minutes later, she got a text message.

_-Hey sorry I’m late. U come here instead. Something came up.-_

What?  Betty tried to call him back, but he wouldn’t answer. She texted back.

_-What about our reservations?-_

_-You won’t need them. Be here soon. I can hardly wait.-_

Weird. 

Betty kind of shamefacedly cancelled the reservation and ignored the death glares of the people outside as she hailed a cab.  She tried calling Daniel one more time, but it too went straight to voicemail. Daniel did like to surprise her. She remembered the  _Wicked_  tickets and the tickets to Rome. Maybe there was a bigger surprise in store for her?  Well, whatever as long as it involved food. She was freaking  _starving._

She sat back in the cab, trying to ignore the smell that wafted up from the floorboards. Euuuugh. Betty was grateful to be able to pay the man and get the hell out of the cab. As he sped off, she stood there on the sidewalk, looking up at Daniel’s place. The blinds were drawn and she couldn’t see anything other than some flickering shadows. Drat. She couldn’t tell what Daniel’s surprise was, but she was getting a little excited. The weirdness had passed now that she was there.

Betty made her way inside to the foyer and to the elevator. It seemed to take forever for it to climb to the penthouse. When the doors opened, Betty stepped out. She dusted off her skirt, and checked her hair in the chrome accent mirror that was next to the up and down buttons. She was kind of nervous. Daniel had made very clear that this was going to be a night that she would never forget.

She made her way to the door. It was cracked open just a little. Betty shook her head. Daniel never worried about being robbed or anything like that. That must be nice. She reached out and pushed open the front door.

And caught her breath.

Her senses were assaulted. Warm candlelight filled the small hallway that lead out into Daniel’s living room, giving everything a warm, seductive glow. There had to be hundreds of candles there. All were burning and dripping wax at different levels. There were vases and vases of roses around the room.  She saw red roses, pink roses, peach roses, white roses and yellow roses. She saw hybrids that had several different colors, and was enchanted to see that the roses were sweating in the candlelight- the glow from the candles making the light condensation on the roses look like diamonds.

Betty brought her hands to her mouth and whirled around, trying to see everything at once. She took a step further into the room and shut the door. Rose petals had been left on the glossy wooden floor that lead back towards Daniel’s bedroom. Betty felt like her heart was going to melt.

“Oh….”

For a minute Betty was confused.  She had certainly drawn the breath to let out a small noise, but moan had come….from Daniel’s bedroom?

She cocked her head to listen.

Trepidation caused her stomach to start to churn as she got closer to the closed door. She could hear moaning clearly now, and it was…feminine.  _Maybe it’s a ... movie?_  She desperately told herself.  But the rhythmic squeaking of the bedsprings told her something different. She heard muffled through the door, “Ohhh Oh Daniel….”

Pain, like a physical blow to her chest, caused her to bend over and gasp.  _Oh god oh god oh god. Why would he…? How come there…?_  But she couldn’t finish a thought.  Now the smell from the roses in the room was cloying, making her gag.

Betty saw her shaking hand come out to touch the doorknob. She couldn’t make herself stop.  She knew what was going on behind that door, but couldn’t make herself just leave the apartment. Daniel’s words from a week ago, words that she would think of before she went to bed, or when she saw him working at his desk, or she scratched her nose….  _“Betty-I-don’t-think-I-could-be-with-you-just-once-or-twice-and-then-go-back-to-being-friends. I couldn’t. You mean too much to me. And I didn’t come up here because… I was afraid that you, you… wouldn’t want me to stay.”_ Now when she thought of them they sounded hallow. Mocking.

Her fingers touched the doorknob. She had to see. As much as she wanted to turn and run….she had to see this.

The doorknob turned under her hand….

* * *

 

**Meanwhile… about fifteen minutes ago….somewhere else in the City….**

 

“You have to be joking.”  Claire Meade looked at her eldest child, the surprise of her words showing on her face.

“No! I’m not!  _God_ , mom! Men are such pigs! He’s just like dad.”

Claire flinched at those words. She sat there in the chair, stunned. She had thought for sure that Daniel had finally… _finally_ …found something with Betty. Something that she had never had with Bradford- well, not since Fey had been in the picture, almost literally between them in bed. Alexis was pacing back and forth across the room, full of anger. Her hands were waving in the air, and she was cursing under her breath.  Claire watched her, still stunned. Both of them had been giggling like girlfriends each time Alexis would call her with a “Detty” update. Alexis had christened her brother and Betty’s relationship as such, shrugging and saying that if Brad and Angelina could be called Bradgelina or Tom and Katie could be called TomKat… then by George she could call her bro and Betty… Detty.

It did have a nice ring to it.

The two women had loved watching Daniel fall in love with his assistant. As much as he had tried to hide it, a mother always knows. Not to mention an obsessively nosy older sister.  So, she had been rather surprised when Alexis had came to her with the story of Daniel all over some model and leaving with her not a half an hour ago…. Claire’s heart had broken a little for Daniel.

Plus, she wanted to wring his neck.

“That’s just not fair, mom! Betty deserves better than that…..  _man_. I just can’t believe he would… I mean he was stumbling over even telling me he cared for her. And now this? He’s cheating? That’s it. I’m going over there. That little son of a bitch,” she looked at Claire who raised one perfectly manicured eyebrow at her. “Erm. Sorry. That little shit is going to explain to me why I even bothered moving Betty around. Ha! I should give her HIS job! He better … just… he better have a damn good explanation!”

“Wait. You can’t just barge in there, darling.”

Alexis whirled, glaring down at her mother with her hands on her hips.

“Not without me, anyway. I’ll just get my purse.”

* * *

 

Daniel was feeling sick. This crazy bint had been stalking him.  He had passed out while she was unlocking the door, and had woken up with candles lighting every surface of the room. He was having the strangest dreams. He could see Betty… caressing his face. Slowly undressing him. It was strange that he couldn’t put his arms around her. He wanted to ask if she liked the roses, but couldn’t seem to make his voice work.  He felt her kiss him, and it was all…wrong. Betty didn’t taste like lipstick. She tasted sweet. Or like pizza and garlic….Or death by chocolate and wine….

He was naked, lying on his own silk sheets. He couldn’t move, or talk. He was so nauseous that he could only lie there, concentrating on his breathing.

She had laughed at him when he feebly tried to fight her from grabbing his phone.

“Oh…poor little ugly girl being stood up at the restaurant. Don’t worry. It’s probably not the first time. Why don’t I just text her and she can come on over and join the party? Hmmm. I hope bribing the maitre D didn’t cost you too much. Just think of your little whore, Daniel. She’s been stood up. I bet her widdle feewings are hurt…”

She took off her dress. She too was naked underneath. She leaned closer to Daniel to bite his earlobe. “Just think of it Daniel, my love. She’ll come up here all hopeful and pathetically excited when she sees all the roses and candles…. And she’ll see….” She pulled on his earlobe with her teeth. And laughed.

Daniel couldn’t even push her away. Whatever she had given him was making it hard for him to stay focused. He thought he blacked out again, but wasn’t sure. Her voice sounded like a record that had been on the wrong speed. “Aww, there’s her cab now. showtime, beloved.”

Daniel could feel her hand on him, trying to work him into hardness.  If he could have gloated, he would have.   _Ha. Take that, Bitch._

“Oh come on, darling don’t play so hard to get. You said that you couldn’t resist me.” She bent down. He could feel the heat of her mouth, and closed his eyes, repulsed.

“Hmmm. I must have put just a shade too much in that drink. Had I known that you had this little problem, angel, I would have slipped one of those lovely little blue pills in with the mix. Ahh… your little whore is in the apartment now. Just think of what she’s imagining, Daniel. You… her prince… all that romantic rot.”

She climbed on top of him. He was completely flaccid. He watched as she smirked and opened her mouth. “Ohhh.” The moan was pitched just loud enough to carry to the next room.

_Oh no… oh no…_

She started bouncing to make the bedsprings sing. He knew he wasn’t hard, and certainly wasn’t inside of her, but to anyone who opened the door, it would look like she was on top of him… riding him. Bianca reached down and took his hands and placed them on his hips. They started to slide off, but she grabbed them, holding them firmly in place with her own hands.  He squeezed his eyes shut. The bouncing caused his head to lull to the side so that he was facing the doorway. The bedsprings sped up. He heard her moaning even louder… “Ohhh. Oh… Daniel…”

From his vantage point, he could see the doorknob turn.  _Oh Jesus, please no…Betty, I’m so sorry…_

The door swung open slowly, making a slight squeaking sound.

Daniel thought that the look on Betty’s face would haunt him until he died.  Her wide, shocked eyes found his. She was so pale, he was afraid she would pass out. He could see some blush standing out starkly on her white cheeks like little red flags. He could see tears swimming in her eyes behind her glasses. Her lips trembled as her throat swallowed convulsively. The look of pain on her face as she watched them together made his own heart break.

* * *

 

Betty met Daniel’s eyes. He looked sorry, but…he didn’t say anything. What could he say? What was there to say? Betty took in the woman on top of Daniel, their hands joined together on his hips and couldn’t take it. She was afraid she’d be sick. Betty whirled on her heel, stumbled once against the door frame, and ran.

She made it to the door of the apartment before she bent over heaving. Her heart was pounding so furiously that nothing came up, but her stomach jumped around unpleasantly. She caught a glimpse of the skirt that just hours ago had made her feel foolishly feminine and sexy.

And she got mad. Betty got mad in only the way a Jackson Heights girl can get mad. 

How. Dare. He.

Betty stood up and stomped back to the bedroom. The woman had stopped bouncing and seemed to be… laughing? She was… _laughing_?!

Oh, no…fucking… _way._

Betty saw red. She reached up towards the woman’s long dark brown locks and took a double handful, yanking and pulling her off of Daniel. The woman, shocked, slid back, bringing her hands up to her hair. Daniel’s sheets were slippery- the fact that she knew that enraged her even more- enough that the woman fell back over the footrest of the bed and onto the floor.

Right onto her ass.

Betty looked triumphantly at Daniel. But… he wasn’t moving. He just lied there. She could see tears leaking out of one eye, falling down his cheek and into his ear. The sight startled her so much that when the naked woman tackled her, she completely lost her balance and managed to whack her head against a night table, sending the things scattered there onto the floor. 

They wrestled around on the wooden floor, the other woman having an advantage over Betty. She was able to get a hold onto Betty’s clothes and use them for purchase against her. They rolled over twice. The woman managed to get in one girly slap, before Betty balled up her fist and socked her right in the nose.

The woman fell back like a dead fish, completely unconscious.

“Gee. What did we miss?”  Betty looked up to where she was straddling the naked woman, to see both Alexis and Claire Meade standing there looking shocked.

And still, no movement from Daniel. He didn’t even try to cover himself up from the shocked gazes of his mother and sister.

Betty got up and pushed her hair out of her face. Her hand hurt. She absently shook it, wiggling her fingers. She walked over to where Daniel was just stretched out on the bed, seemingly oblivious to the catfight that had just been duked out, almost literally at his feet. He was faced away from her. Betty reached out and with shaking fingers, turned his head so that he was facing her.  His eyes were bloodshot; the pupils different shapes and so big in his eyes, that she could hardly see the electric blue that never failed to make her heart speed up. Her fingers slid around his neck to feel for his pulse. It was weak… thready.

“Something’s wrong.”

Betty's heart pounded in her chest. She turned in time to see the woman come to, and try to get up onto her hands and knees.  Claire calmly raised one stylishly high-heeled clad foot and kicked the woman on the ass, sending her sprawling onto the floor on her face.

Betty turned to look for Daniel’s phone. It had fallen onto the floor next to the blankets. She brought both up, and covered his nakedness.

She watched the woman start to head for the door again, guarded by the two Meade women. Both stood with their hands crossed, equal looks on their faces. Betty was very glad that neither of their looks were aimed at her.

Betty called 911 and babbled something about needing the police and an ambulance. She gave Daniel’s address, and reached for his hand. She thought his fingers twitched around hers, but she wasn’t sure.

* * *

 

Numb, Betty got out of the town car with Alexis and Claire. The woman, whose name was Bianca, had been hauled away in handcuffs, to be held until Daniel’s hospital report came back. Betty, Claire and Alexis had all insisted that the police hold her until they knew for sure what had happened. The police, after hearing how she had tried to escape, had agreed.

Betty couldn’t believe everything that had happened. They had followed the ambulance to the hospital and watched while he was wheeled into the emergency room. Alexis had been on the phone with her lawyer, pulling strings and insisting that he do what he can to hold the woman. It was bothering her that she looked vaguely familiar, and insisted that she had something to do with the vandalism at the NYG offices. Claire had just sat there, holding Betty’s cold hands in her own.

“He’ll be fine.”  But Claire looked worried.  The doctors were professional, but Betty heard something about “overdose” and “lowered heart rate” and was sick with worry.  She had been so mad… so hurt… so… _angry._ She hadn’t even thought for a second that Daniel had been a victim in all of this. She had been so self-involved with her own pain, that she hadn’t even seen.

She sniffed. It seemed to take hours for a doctor to come out to the little family waiting room and talk to them.  Alexis hung up with her lawyer and sat down next to her mother. Betty wiped her nose on her wrist, something that would have normally grossed her out completely, but now she was too worried to care about social niceties.

“Well, we found out what he took. Rather, what was given to him. I informed the police, and faxed over the lab results. Mr. Meade tested positive for Ketamine, a common date-rape drug."

“Rape?” Claire gasped, letting go of Betty’s hands and bring them up to her lips.

“Yes, Ma’am. We can’t be positive until he confirms it, but we believe it might have been slipped into a drink, or possibly some food. Ketamine leaves its victim unable to move or respond, or prevent what happens to them. They frequently experience hallucinations or visual distortions as well as a loss of time.”

“And- and that B…b..bitch did that to my little boy?” Claire’s voice started out wobbly but turned venomous.

“Yes, ma’am. If he hadn’t been rushed to the hospital, he could have slipped into a coma. He was already displaying signs of lowered heart-rate. Dangerously low.”

There was a silence in the room as they took that in. Betty sniffed again, and Alexis absently handed her a handkerchief.

“Now, I do have some good news. He is awake, although groggy. He’s asking for.. well…um, which one of you is named Betty?”

* * *

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh boy. In this chapter, Daniel is roofied, sexually assaulted, and goes into respiratory arrest from complications of the drug.


	12. Chapter 12

Betty swallowed hard. “That’s…me.” She whispered it. Her throat, and clogged as it was by tears and less pleasant things, had a hard time getting the words out. “But his f-family should go in there first.”

“Don’t be an idiot.” Claire was never one to mince words. “He wants you. He wouldn’t be here if not… for you.”

Betty’s eyes widened, horrified at the words. Her own guilt had turned the older woman’s words into an accusation.

Claire, completely oblivious to the shock she had just given Betty, continued. “That …. _model_  -she almost spit out the word- could have done anything to him if you hadn’t shown up. Please go. He wants you there, Betty.”

Betty felt her lower lip wobbling, and some more tears leaked out of her eyes. She started to turn away to follow the doctor when Alexis stopped her. “I think you forgot to get the waterproof mascara. You look like you just went twelve rounds with Mike Tyson. Only with both ears. Here, let me…”  She took the handkerchief and reversed it, dabbing at Betty’s makeup. 

“Now go and talk to him, Betty.”

Betty nodded. It was pretty much impossible to stand up to either of these two women when they joined forces. Of course, she wasn’t really trying too hard to stand up to them. She desperately wanted to check for herself that Daniel was okay, that he didn’t hate her for thinking that he was….

Well. Better not to think about that now. She stopped at a water fountain to splash some cold water on her face to try to make her skin look less blotchy (Daniel always seemed to be able to tell when she was crying) and followed the Doctor to the little curtained off cubicle that Daniel was presumably resting in.

She opened the curtain just a little to see if he was awake. At the small sound, Daniel turned his head to see who was there.

It frightened her to see all the machines hooked up to him.  Okay, well there weren’t a lot of machines. Maybe two. Okay,  _one_ and an IV. So she was panicking a little bit. It had been an eventful night. Her eyes went to the heart rate monitor, connected to his chest by four little sensors.

“Hi.”

Daniel thought his heart rate had jumped when he saw Betty cautiously stick her head in between the curtains, but apparently not enough to alarm any of the nurses.  He cleared his throat, overly-aware that she hadn’t moved any closer to him.  She was standing about three feet away from the foot of his hospital bed.

“You wanted to see me?” Betty had to mentally force herself not to run over to him.  He was sitting up in the bed, looking wan and exhausted. They had given him some scrubs for modesty’s sake, but hadn’t put the top on while they monitored his heart functions.  Looking at him filled her with the most horrible, sick, guilty feeling.  She didn’t deserve to be here. It was all her fault that woman had attacked him. If she had just left him alone…if she hadn’t been so selfish…then he wouldn’t be here in the hospital, hurt.

“Betty,  _please_  come here.” Daniel was disgusted with himself for needing her to come closer to him.  She obviously didn’t want to. Parts of the evening were rather strange. He could remember hallucinations and strange feelings. Parts of the evening were gone completely. But parts, like the shattered look on Betty’s face when she opened that door, were playing in glorious Technicolor on his eyelids whenever she shut his eyes. And now…she didn’t want to be near him. It was like last night; he wanted to see her and had gotten Amanda and Marc to convince her to meet him on the roof, and had managed to scare the ever-loving bejesus out of her in the process. Because  _he_ wanted to see her.  Now he was asking her to come closer to him, to reach out to him…because  _he_ wanted her to.  

His own selfishness sickened him.

She took a step closer to the bed, so that she was completely inside the curtained off area.  “Can I get you anything? Do you need some water or if you want your mom is out in the waiting room, and Alexis and they want to see you too. I could go and get you a change of clothes if you want and…”

“Betty. I’m so sorry.” He ached to touch her, her hand…her face… _anything_  but she might as well have been across the room.  His words stemmed her nervous prattling. She bent her head, hiding behind her hair.  “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.” The kicker was, she had told him. It must have been right after she started there- she  _told_ him that the way he treated women was going to come back and bite him in the ass.

A nurse opened the curtain brusquely enough that both Betty and Daniel jumped. She stepped around Betty and started taking his blood pressure, temperature and other vitals.  When Daniel was able to look up again, Betty was gone.

* * *

 

Betty almost couldn’t do it.  Stepping out of the elevator again took a physical act of courage. The whole way over from the hospital she berated herself for being such a coward. She was treating Daniel as if he had done something wrong! And  _he_  was apologizing- didn’t he realize that this was all her fault? Didn’t he understand that  _she_  was the one responsible for…everything? There had been an accident near Daniel’s cross-street, and Betty had welcomed the excuse to stay inside the fairly warm cab. At least this one smelled of vanilla- even if it was car-freshener vanilla.  The extra ten bucks was worth it.  That had been a whole extra thirty minutes that she could stall before going to Daniel’s apartment.

But the cabbie had, in typical New York fashion bypassed part of the accident by creative use of sidewalks, and it had only taken her about forty-five minutes to make the ten-minute drive, she paid him and left the cab. There was only one police car there.  Betty had asked a police officer standing outside if it was okay to come up and get Mr. Meade a change of clothes.

“Sure is. I remember you from earlier. I’m glad your boyfriend is going to be okay.  You did a great job getting him to the hospital. You go on up. We’re just about finished here.”  He radioed that she was coming upstairs, and Betty had gone on her way. 

The door was open. There wasn’t any crime scene tape or anything as dramatic as that, just an officer standing poking around the mess and another taking picture.

Obviously Gil Grissom had the night off.

 _CSI_ _… total fiction. Besides, they wouldn’t call a CSI unit for something like this. Although it would be nice to have …_  Betty shook her head. Okay. Fantastic. She was losing her mind.

She nodded at the officers and spared a glance at the living room. Roses and candles had been knocked everywhere when Daniel had been wheeled out on the gurney. She supposed it was lucky that nothing had started a fire- some of the candles by the window were still burning,  the light flickering cheerfully in the darkened room.  Betty had made Daniel get flame-resistant drapes after the whole Renee incident….

She took a deep, shuddering breath, got a hold of her wayward thoughts, and made her way to Daniel’s bedroom.

“Hey, Miss, we’re done in there. So go ahead and get what you need.”

She nodded, but couldn’t find the words to speak. The door was open. The night table that she had knocked over with her head was lying on its side, with a number of things scattered around it.  Betty avoided looking at the bed; which was hard being that it was such a big bed, instead getting down on her knees to pick up the things that had fallen onto the floor. She set the table back up onto its legs.  A lamp had cracked, but fortunately not shattered. Daniel’s phone must have rolled under the bed with all the fuss to get him to the hospital. There was some loose change on the floor, a bottle of water, and a book of Sudoku puzzles. Betty couldn’t help but grin at the thought of Daniel sitting up in bed, watching Letterman and doing Sudoku.

Betty tried to reach under the bed to search for Daniel’s phone. She knew he would want that and was determined to get it for him.  She felt something….But couldn’t quite…reach….

Betty swore under her breath and got down onto her stomach to peer under the bed. She saw Daniel’s phone, and what looked like a small, wooden box.

Curious, she pulled both out from under the bed, sneezing twice as she was attacked by a vicious dust bunny.  Betty absently set Daniel’s phone near her on the floor, and sitting with her back against the bed’s mattresses, she put the box on her lap. It was only about six inches wide and tall, a beautiful cedar color with a daisy engraved on the top.   _Should I…open it? No, of course not!  That’s not yours. That’s Daniel’s private business._  She shook it experimentally.  Something inside made a muffled rattle.  Curiosity might have killed the cat, but it was a great distraction from her problems.  She cracked open the lid. There were only four things in there.

The first was a picture. Betty squeezed her eyes shut when she saw it. She recognized it immediately; her new office at NYG. Or, more accurately, what would be her office at NYG. She hadn’t exactly moved in yet. In the picture, she was kneeling in the mess of papers and paint that had been on the floor. Daniel’s arms were around her and his lips were on her forehead. The picture had been cropped so that you could only see them, not anything that had been spray-painted on the walls. Where had this come from?  She couldn’t remember this one being taken.  Her heart thumped a couple of times when her eyes zeroed in on Daniel kissing her forehead. It was a sweet gesture, like one would do for a child who just skinned their knee. Betty set it aside with shaking fingers.

The next was a newspaper clipping, another picture. Betty recognized this one too; she had its twin at her house on her mirror.  She looked at it every day. It was the picture that had accompanied the rude, insulting article written about her and Daniel in last week’s Page Six. She and Daniel were holding hands and he had the most amazing look on his face as he looked at her.  She set it aside also. 

The next object was a flat jewelry box. Betty opened it…and caught her breath. Her “B” necklace sat in its velvet depths, brightly shining up at her. The faux pearls that had adorned it previously now gleamed with a sheen that couldn’t be faked. Her necklace! She had thought that she lost it at the orthodontist’s, but…Daniel had  had it all this time? Betty closed her eyes, trying to remember the events of that night. She remembered Daniel grabbing for her as she fell, and…he replaced it. The “B” Necklace 2.0. She turned it over, and brought it up to her face, letting the cool pearls slide against her cheeks, hot from her tears. She took a deep breath, and put the necklace back into its velvety box.  She set it aside on top of the two pictures, and peered into the small wooden box on her lap.

“If you’re gonna peek at that one, I have something to tell you first.”

Betty gave a startled screech and jumped, sending the wooden box, as well as the small object inside flying. The box made a loud clunking sound on the floor when it and the other object bounced on the bed.

Daniel looked ridiculous, standing there barefoot in hospital scrubs. The bottoms were a sky blue, and the top seemed to have little puppy dogs and frolicking kittens on it. He walked over to Betty, and helped her to stand.  “You know,” he said conversationally, “today was supposed to have gone quite a bit differently. “ He let his hands run up her arms, and back down to her hands.

“You…kept those pictures?”  Betty whispered.

“Yep.”

“And my…you fixed my necklace.”

“Yep. I’m also….”

Betty’s phone rang, startling them both. It was Claire.

“Betty! You disappeared. Is Daniel with you? He went running out of the hospital almost naked, until an orderly gave him the shirt off his back. The doctor said he was AMA, whatever that means, and the police officer wants you two to come in to make a statement.” Claire sounded frazzled.

“Yes, Mrs. Meade. He’s here. I’ll tell him.”

Daniel and Betty were still staring at each other, holding eye contact.  Betty hung up without saying goodbye, and opened her mouth to speak.  Daniel brought two fingers up to her mouth and brushed them against her lips.

“That sounded like my mother.”

Betty nodded, too overcome by the small touch to speak for a moment. “We need to go to the police station.”

 _Dammit_ _. Will our timing **ever**  be right?_ 

Daniel sighed. “Okay. I need a shower before I go. You’ll stay, won’t you? We can go over there together.”  Daniel wanted to lean down and kiss her, but he was uncomfortably aware of the last person who had kissed him. His stomach churned. Things were… strained. The silence between them was deafening. Better that he not push it.

Betty nodded again. “Okay.” He stepped back from her and into the bathroom. Betty made her way into the living room to blow out the candles.

Neither one of them mentioned the small box on Daniel’s bed.

Betty saw that the police were gone…which was a shame since they could have given them a ride. Betty made her way into the kitchen and rummaged in the fridge for something to eat. She saw some small sandwiches and what looked like…chocolate covered strawberries? Shrugging, she grabbed that and two sodas and wrapped it in a napkin to eat on the way.

She was freaking starving.

* * *

 

Betty and Daniel were brought into a small room to give their statements. Alexis’s lawyer was there, and filled the officer in on the vandalism at the Meade building.

Betty had started to leave, but Daniel had put a hand out, asking her to stay with him while he gave his statement.

Betty listened as Daniel described what happened. His hand inched closer to hers when he described how the woman planned on getting Betty there, about how her plan had been to hurt Daniel and leave Betty there to take the blame. About how she bragged about the fact that seeing her on top of Daniel would hurt Betty.

The officer shook his head, eyes darting to Betty (who was looking down at their joined hands without speaking) before asking if she had raped him.  Daniel was adamant that no, there had been no actual intercourse. But he still wanted to press charges for assault.

The officer gave him a “duh” look. He sighed, put down his pen, and squeezed the bridge of his nose. Betty looked up to realize that it was the same officer that had come to Daniel’s place…was it only three weeks ago?

“Well, Mr. Meade, Miss Suarez, you two are very lucky. This woman has a record in California for battery, assault, and attempted homicide.“

The lawyer cleared his throat. “I assume you taped her confession.” Betty knew that he had been introduced to her, but for the life of her she couldn’t remember his name.

“Of course.”

The detective looked again to Betty. “Ma’am, some of this may be hard to hear.”

Betty looked up at him, and spoke for the first time since Daniel told his story. “If Daniel can handle that crazy….woman…doing all that to him, I can handle hearing about it.”

Daniel squeezed her hand. God, there was so much he wanted to tell her… but the officer was speaking.

“Well, I guess this woman, had applied for several positions at MODE. One as a model, one as some sort of editor…and was passed over twice. Apparently during erm, your… relationship…with her, she got it in her head that because you and she had slept together that she would have the job.”

Betty snorted.

“Then, according to her you had made a date with her and showed up with Miss Suarez in the newspaper. This was…oh. The night you assaulted her.”

“He  _didn’t_  assault me!”

“Yes, Ma’am.” The cop shuffled some papers awkwardly.  “Anyway, she was told that Miss Suarez was getting the position and that’s when she trashed the office. She was gloating about how easy it was to get in and out. You might want to take a look at that.”

Daniel coughed when he felt Betty’s elbow jam into his ribcage.

“So, to make a long story short, this woman, Heather Bianca Cooper, felt that you had wronged her, Mr. Meade. She kept mentioning watching you and erm…Miss Suarez on an elevator. She confessed to planning on giving Miss Suarez some of the same drug she had given you, to implicate her in your…erm…demise.”

“Holy fucking shit.”

Daniel, the lawyer and the officer all looked at Betty, who was sitting in her chair with both hands clapped over her mouth, turning a very interesting shade of red.

The officer’s lips twitched.

After that, there was just a statement for both Betty and Daniel to sign. The lawyer assured them that it was doubtful that with her record that either one of them would have to appear in court. “After all,” he joked,” That’s why you pay me the big bucks.”  He waved as the taxi pulled away from the curb.

Which left Betty and Daniel outside the police station, staring at each other.

“Do you…want to…um…get some coffee?” Betty was at a complete loss as to what to feel, do, or say.  She was baffled by why Daniel didn’t seem to be mad at her. All of this was…her fault! Everything!

“Would you be comfortable coming to my place?”

Betty’s heart started to pound.  

Daniel looked a little nervous, himself. 

“Okay. If you…want me there.”

Daniel looked baffled. “Why wouldn’t I want you there?”

Betty turned and started to walk. Daniel paused for a second, and then rushed after her.

“Look, we’re not in the worst neighborhood here, but you probably shouldn’t walk alone. “  Betty was hustling fairly quickly, her strappy heels that Justin had insisted she buy making her feet hurt a little.  Daniel rushed after her.  He caught up, noticing that she was walking with her arms crossed over her chest, hugging herself.

“Betty---wait…. _Please_.”

She stopped. She had been walking blindly, not wanting him to see that she was crying again. Betty couldn’t explain why she had turned into such a watering pot, but was willing to bet that lack of sleep, and stress, and murderous crazy bitches had something to do with it. Well that or she just needed some caffeine. 

Daniel jogged up behind her and put his leather jacket over her shoulders.  She breathed in the scent of his cologne and sucked in a shuddering breath.

Daniel was shocked to see that she had been crying. He looked around, noticing the neon sign of a 24-hour diner. He had to talk to her, now. He hustled her towards the diner while she wiped her eyes. The cheerful bell announced their presence and the woman in the polyester uniform and beehive hairdo hollered from across the counter, “Hey, y’all just have a seat. I’ll be with you in a mo’.”

Daniel ushered her to a booth in the back of the room, as far away from the other diners as possible. Not that there were many. An older couple sat near the front, and a young family sat near the jukebox.

They sat down, and Betty grabbed at the little cheap plastic container of napkins. She reached under her glasses to wipe her eyes. The thing was so jammed full that she couldn’t get an entire napkin out.  “I don’t know why I’m crying. I’m sorry, I’m fine really.”

“I love you.”

The waitress, who had been on her way with a pot of coffee and a smile, froze about two steps away, turned on her heel and made her way back to the counter as though she were on fire. Her rubber-soled shoes made little squeaky sounds on the linoleum as she went. She then elbowed the other waitress and whispered lowly, nodding over at the two at the booth. 

Betty had frozen, one napkin almost jammed into her eyeball, glasses askew, staring at Daniel like he had just confessed to wanting to join the circus. 

Daniel couldn’t believe that after three weeks of driving himself insane, he had just blurted it out like that. “I know that you must…hate me. What happened was awful, and if I hadn’t been such a…a-an idiot about women, you never would have been hurt.” Daniel flashed back to the look on Betty’s face when she opened the door to see the naked woman on top of him.  He had once again hurt her. If Betty’d let him, he’d spend the rest of his life making it up to her.

Betty was still beyond speech.

Daniel leaned forward and brushed a strand of her hair out of her face. “Tonight was supposed to be special. Instead it was …a…well, a mess. I wanted so badly to show you how much you mean to me. With the dinner, and the flowers and candles….”

Betty blinked, still staring at him.

The waitress, having decided to give it another go, started to walk back over to their table, coffee in hand.

“I was going to make love to you…to show you how much I love…how much you…oh Damn. I don’t think I could be screwing this up more if I planned it out in advance.”  Daniel, irritated at his inability to articulate what he was feeling, ran one hand through his hair.

The waitress made a mad, yet squeaky, dash back to the safety of her counter. The other waitress was watching, avidly, chin in her hands and elbows propped up against the counter. 

Daniel was horribly aware that Betty hadn’t said anything. She was just sitting there, still stunned. “Betty?” One part of his brain knew that Betty wouldn’t be intimate with someone that she didn’t care about, (or so he told himself at three in the morning when he agonized over whether or not she could love him back.) but the other part of his brain was scared to death. 

“I don’t understand… You’re not…upset with me? That woman…she…what she did… she…how can you not be mad at me?” Betty’s voice was low, but strained.

Daniel hesitantly reached out to hold her hand. “It was…horrible. I don’t think I’ll ever forget it. My mother saw me… _naked_!” Daniel mock shuddered.

Betty smiled. It wasn’t anything near her normal stop-you-in-your-tracks smile, but it was a smile.

“She scared me- because she wanted to hurt you.” Daniel shrugged.  “So she bounced naked on me a couple of times. She was kind of bony, and I think she bruised my hip, but the worst part of the night for me was ... well…when you opened the door. It wasn’t by anything that she had done, more like everything she had done to hurt us.”

The waitress, who had completely given up on serving them anything, had inched as close to their table as possible, and was also leaning against the counter, eating a piece of pie and watching them, fascinated.

“Betty, watching you think that I had betrayed you hurt more than anything. And, I can’t change who I was in the past. I know I’ve done some colossally stupid things.. . I can only hope that… “ Daniel trailed off, unsure of what else to say. He sucked at this emotional baring of the soul stuff.

Betty brought her covered hand to her face, turning it so that her cheek was against Daniel’s hand.

“You’re an amazing person, Daniel Meade.”

Daniel went from depressed to pathetically hopeful in about two seconds.

“I don’t understand how you aren’t disgusted with me.  And I definitely don’t understand how.. Bianca? would want to do that to another person. If I hadn’t already have socked her one, I would go do it again.”

Daniel’s brows furrowed.  “Wait.  You what?”

Betty’s cheeks heated. “When I …erm…yanked her off of you, she um, slid off the bed, and fell on her…um…her butt.”

Daniel’s eyes widened. Now that she mentioned it, he did kind of remember a scuffle…but he hadn’t been able to see anything. “Get to the socking thing.”

Betty shrugged. “She fought like a girl. Hilda and I quit rolling around together and slapping each other when I was like…twelve. But it was annoying. And I really, really  _really_ didn’t like her. So I might have...um…punched her. Kinda. Inthenose.” She finished in an embarrassed flush, ducking her head.

Daniel was watching her, completely captivated by the woman across from him. One thing was for sure. She was never boring.  “Awww, you beat her up for me, baby?”

Betty threw a napkin at him.

Daniel leaned forward and kissed her while she was still smiling.

(The waitresses heaved contented sighs.)

Betty broke off. “Um, the service here kinda stinks. Can we go now?”

Daniel tipped the waitress anyway, just thrilled that she had left them alone. He was in such a great mood that he probably would have tipped her a hundred dollars if he had had it in his wallet.

Betty snuggled into Daniel’s jacket as they walked. They would walk a few feet, kiss some more, walk a few more feet, and kiss a little more….

Finally, when they were outside of Daniel’s apartment, Betty stopped walking. Daniel, who was enjoying the silence of the evening, the beauty of the night, and was in general walking on air, had momentum taking him another three steps before he actually stopped.

“You’re really not traumatized or anything by going up here?” Daniel wanted to make sure.  She was just standing there, looking up at his apartment. “Betty?” 

She had a look on her face that he recognized, sort of a maniacal gleam that she got in her eye when she had an idea.  Then, she was opening the door, and pulling him up the few stoop steps with her other hand. Daniel raised an eyebrow, amused. She waited impatiently for the elevator.  “Betty?” Daniel tried again. She stood up on tiptoes and gave him a quick kiss on the lips, pleased to note that it had the same power on him as it had on her. Daniel stood there calmly and let her yank him into the elevator. He leaned forward to resume kissing (what  _was_  it with him and elevators?) but was stopped by Betty’s hand on his chest.  She pointed up to the red blinking light on the camera in the corner.

Daniel smiled sheepishly.  

The elevator dinged and the doors opened. Daniel found himself being led to his own door. His eyes widened a little when Betty dug into his pockets so she could unlock  and go inside.   _If she keeps it up she’d find more than just a set of keys!_

“Ah-ha.” She muttered under her breath.

 _Ahhh, ha_. Daniel thought to himself.

Betty pushed him into his apartment. Daniel saw again all the roses and unlit candles, and frowned.

“Where do you keep your matches?” 

Daniel told her. Betty lit one and started relighting the candles. Daniel smiled, finally beginning to get an inking of what she was up to, and started arranging the few that had fallen over. He took one of the lit candles, and started on the other side of the room, relighting them. By the time he finished, Betty was standing with her arms crossed behind her back, leaning against the door.  Daniel smiled at her.  He couldn’t help it. She looked a little like a kid playing dress-up with the arms of his jacket sleeves hanging down past her waist.

Betty smiled at him.  “Thanks for a lovely evening.”

Daniel had a strange urge to laugh. His lips twitched as he played along. “It was my pleasure.  I love Japanese food. And I never got the chance to tell you how amazing you look.” Daniel’s brows furrowed.  “I wanted to tell you that. I couldn’t help but notice that lately you look…well…different. First the braces, then the clothes…”

‘Well, you can blame the clothes on Justin.  When we were shopping, he threw a fit when I had refused to get skirts that were just a little too short…and tops that showed a little too much…um…cleavage. “

_God bless you, Justin._

“Then he stole most of my...um…more colorful…other clothes. And I was left looking a little more put together…a little more grown up. It’s a shame that I had to have my teenage nephew dress me, but we all have to start somewhere.”

She looked around at the room, once again transformed into something out of a dream.

“I can’t believe you’d do this for me. It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.” Betty did another little twirl around to see the room from every angle.

Daniel stepped closer and pulled the jacket a little off her shoulder, kissing the bare spot with just a light brushing of his lips.  Betty shivered.

“Yeah. The most beautiful…thing…” Betty shivered again when she saw that Daniel was looking directly down at her. His look was intense. Blue eyes focused directly onto her brown ones.

Then he yawned.

Betty was so surprised that she laughed, but seeing his yawn caused her to yawn too.

Daniel passed a few seconds by turning an interesting shade of red. “Do you want to sleep over?”

Betty grinned. “Promise not to freeze my bra?”

Daniel sighed.  He really was tired. It had been rather an eventful day. For him, and for Betty _. J_ umping into bed probably wasn’t what she wanted to do anyway. She was probably exhaust… _oh shit!_  Daniel suddenly remembered what was on the bed.  “I promise that there’ll be no freezing of any clothes tonight.” He held up three fingers. Scout’s Honor."

“I think the Boy Scouts had two fingers, not three.”

“Everyone’s a critic.” He turned to go into the bedroom. If he was quick enough he could hide it before she saw it and ran screaming for the hills.  He managed to scoop it up and stick it between the box spring and the mattress, using the excuse that he wanted to strip the sheets off the bed. Which now that he thought about it, he kinda did. Nothing that woman touched should even think about coming into contact with his Betty.  He heard the water in his bathroom running.

He was just pulling up the bedspread when he heard her call, “Hey,  do you mind um…turning off the lights?”

He moved to flip the switch. Betty darted by him in the dark. Daniel had the fleeting impression of a tiny scrap of lace and a whole lot of skin, before she dived under the covers. He heard the sound of her glasses clattering against the night table.   Daniel cleared his throat.

“I’m just going to”  _She’s naked in your bed!_  “go and get a couple of waters and, “ _NAKED!_  “take care of the candles…”

“Okay.”

Daniel did so, in record time. He brought one candle with him, one that had a wide enough holder with it that it could burn all night. He put it on the night stand. The small candle illuminated the dark room enough that he could see Betty’s features. She was lying on her side, with the covers pulled up to her chin. 

Feeling a little strange, not to mention like a pervert because it was obvious to his tired brain that she wanted to sleep, he stripped down to his own underwear and got into the bed besides her. 

Betty turned over so that she was pressed up against his side. He could feel all her warm, soft flesh and tried not to whimper. It wouldn’t be manly.  They were silent for a minute. Daniel brought his hand up and over her  _Naked!)_ back.

Betty smiled into his shoulder. The hand on her back felt amazing. She was warm, and sleepy, and perfect. “Daniel?” She moved one leg so it brushed up against his harrier one.

“Um-hm?” He tried not to squeak it.

“Are you  _sure_  you’re tired?” Her hand moved down his body, nails trailing lightly over his chest, and over his tummy. She felt each muscle in his stomach quiver.

 _Fuck no._ “Um…it’s okay. I know you’ve had a long day and…”

Betty leaned over and kissed his chest, right above his right nipple. “Oh. Okay, if you’re sure then…” Her lips were just a little wet, and the breath from her words was cool in the suddenly warm room.  He could feel her as her skin slid against his. She kissed his shoulder, his neck, and the line of his jaw.

_Guh._

He moved his hand down the smooth length of her spine, until he got to the lacy edge of her underwear. 

It was her turn to wiggle a little bit. She moved so that she was centered over him. Daniel moved his legs so that the covers slid off of them, down near their feet.  Betty situated herself so that she was keeling on either side of Daniel’s waist. Her hands were on his shoulders, breasts brushing against his chest. She kissed him passionately, sucking his tongue into her mouth, so that they slid together.  She broke away for a moment, and looked down at him in the almost-darkness.

“This is okay? Really? I mean, me over you like this?”

Daniel thought it was adorable that she asked. He slid his hands up her waist, over her ribcage to cup her breasts in his hands. “Mm-hmmm.” He reached his neck out to lick at the hard tips.

 Betty’s eyes almost rolled back in her head.  She reached down and flicked him on the nose. “Hey, quit that…It’s too distracting. I have sort of a plan here.”

Daniel laughed…which turned into a groan as she started to nibble on his jaw line. He felt her smile as the sound changed, and held his breath when she scraped her teeth lightly over his Adam’s apple. His head fell back to allow her access. When Betty trailed her tongue down his collarbone, and kissed the center of his chest, he forgot to breathe.

She touched his pectorals, rubbing the palms of her hands over his male nipples. Daniel bit his lip when she trailed kisses down to his navel.

“Beh-Betty…” His voice was a little higher than usual. “Are you…are you sure you want to d-d-do this?”  _Speech was overrated anyway._

Betty put a fingertip up to her lips as if she was thinking really hard. “Oh...you’re right. Nope. Don’t want to kiss you anymore.” Betty even started to move off of him. 

Daniel just about had a heart attack.

Betty giggled a little and moved back, situated lower between his legs. Daniel considered himself lucky that he didn’t sprain a knee or something in his haste to get his legs apart. “I haven’t done this….um…before. But I want to try…with you.”

Daniel paused again while his heart continued to pound.

“So…um, you’ll tell me if I do something that isn’t right?”

“Trust me… everything’s right. Anything… you want to do is exactly right.”

“So, if I want to do…this?” Betty opened her mouth over the material of his boxers, using the heat and humidity of her breath to mold the now wet material against him. He felt her tongue flick against him through the cloth.

“Yeah….”  Daniel’s fists curled into fists on the sheets.

“What about this?” She whispered, and pulled down his shorts.  Her face was close enough that his penis kind of bumped against her nose when he sprang free of the somewhat restrictive material.

Daniel’s mouth opened in a moan, but no sound came out. The air in the room was all at once stifling- making it hard for him to breathe.

Betty licked her lips nervously and looked up the line of his body. She could see Daniel’s head thrown back, the cords of his neck rising up against the rest of the flesh there.

She completely loved that she had the power to affect him this way.  Betty moved her head so that she was closer to the head of his penis, and flicked her tongue against it experimentally.

“Oh,  _God_ ….”

When nothing bit her back, she tried again, taking a bit more in her mouth. Growing up, she had giggled about male genitalia with girlfriends, but had never been curious enough to want to try kissing one. She expected it to taste bad. Instead, Daniel tasted…well…warm. Like skin. She could feel how hot it was, how hard  but smooth…and lost some of her nervousness when she heard the sounds Daniel was making.  She moved her head a little further down, running her tongue around the ridge, then further down along the shaft.

Daniel’s moans were making her squirm a little. She loved each sound he made; she wanted to hear more. She closed her mouth more tightly around him, and moved her head back and forth. She wasn’t an idiot after all, she knew what this was supposed to be emulating.  Daniel bent so that she had easier access. One of his hands came up to touch her hair. He wasn’t pushing or forcing her to move any certain way, just sort of hanging onto the back of her head as if he needed some sort of anchor. Partly curious, but mostly turned on, Betty tried sucking on the head, wondering what the suction of her mouth would feel like on him.

Daniel babbled something incoherent, and then jerked away. “S-s-stop. You have to… I’m going to…. Holy God I feel like I’m fifteen again.” He curled on his side and hauled her up to kiss her. He went after her mouth, breathing heavily.

When their lips finally parted, Daniel moved downward until he was sucking on her hard nipples. He tried to kiss her exactly where she had kissed him, but got distracted easily. He worked on one and then moved to the other, leaving his saliva shining on the swollen tip. Daniel spent a long time working on her soft mounds of flesh, deciding that he’d found his new favorite body part. Why models felt like silicone was “just like” the real thing was beyond him.  When he was done, Betty’s breasts were heaving and wet and blotched with red from his beard stubble.

Betty couldn’t seem to keep her legs still. She was hot and throbbing and had never wanted anything so badly in her life.

Finally, Daniel could take no more—he had to have her. He pulled back and looked down at Betty.  He knelt there with his penis throbbing with need.  The sight of her in the flickering candlelight wearing only a tiny pair of panties was something that he knew he’d remember for forever. He striped them off her legs and threw them over his shoulder. Daniel then reached over her and fumbled in the drawer, almost dropping the little package before he managed to rip it open. Betty leaned up and took it out of his hands.

“Let me…” Betty’s voice was breathy.

She rolled the condom down the head, and then the shaft of his penis. Daniel gritted his teeth at the touch of her hands on him.  Her touch wasn’t practiced, or studied, but so erotic for her hesitancy and shyness that Daniel was wishing that he followed sports so he could recite some statistics to get his mind off of it. She fell back onto the mattress and smiled up at him.

Daniel reached down to touch her, but she pulled at his wrist.

“Please…Daniel…I want to feel….”

Slowly, he lifted her legs and placed them on his shoulders. He slid forward, bringing the swollen head of his penis to the entrance of her. . When he touched the sensitive lips, he felt Betty hunch downward, trying to get him inside. He pulled back, teasing her until he couldn’t take anymore himself. Holding her legs up, he moved forward. As the head of his penis slipped slowly inside, Betty moaned and closed her eyes in pleasure. Daniel watched as his hard flesh was engulfed. He could feel the warmth and dampness even through the condom.  She was so tight, that even with the wetness he had to push a little to make room. He didn’t want to hurt her…but god she felt…she felt so…

Slowly, Daniel began to pull himself out, watching the pink lips try to hold him inside. Then he pushed back in as Betty moaned in excitement. Gradually, he began to move until he was sliding in and out at a slow but steady pace.

But that didn’t last long. Betty’s head was rolling back and forth and she was moaning his name with these broken little cries that made him get closer and closer to his own climax.

He reached down and tilted her hips, changing the angle of his thrusts. Watching Betty bite her lip and fall apart below him was absolutely beautiful.

“Daniel…I love…  love you…”  Betty gasped, wrapping her arms around his shoulders.

Daniel froze.

He knew people often said things that they didn’t mean during sex (that had actually gotten him into trouble a few times) but he had never in his life wanted to believe anything so badly.

Betty brought her hands up to the sides of his face.  “I do…I love you… I love you, Daniel.” He could feel how wet she was, how her inner muscles fluttered around him as she came, and bit his lip, then kissed her temple, just grateful that she wanted him. 

Daniel closed his eyes, buried his face in her hair, and let himself go.

* * *

 

**Epilogue**

 Betty was nervous. On a scale of one to ten, with one being in a coma and ten needing to freebase Valium, she was at about an…oh …twelve.

Claire Meade was throwing a small, intimate dinner party for Betty and Daniel. If of course “small” meant “dinner for about 60 people.”

It had been about a month since that horrible night with Bianca and the police station.  Daniel and Betty had managed to keep things under wraps from both the media and the employees at Meade (except for Christina, Marc, Amanda, Claire and Alexis who had started a small betting pool to see if they could guess the date that Daniel would go crazy and waylay Betty in the supply closet.) but his mother had decided that enough was bloody jolly well enough and that Betty and Daniel should “come out” tonight.  No biggie.

Except for the fact that her family and the few people she knew from Mode were there, Betty didn’t know anyone.  To top it all off, Daniel had been acting incredibly goofy all night. He was working the room, but still making sure that her and her family wasn’t ostracized by the crème of New York society. Not that would happen. Claire Meade was far too practiced of a hostess to let anything so gauche happen at her party.

Betty had even bought a new dress for the occasion. It was a simple navy blue sheath, with no straps and a lowish back, which was, she discovered a mistake, as Daniel kept finding ways to drop little kisses on the back of her neck and shoulders, causing her to shiver.

Dinner was to be served at seven. A maid in a stiff, white uniform delivered a letter to Betty while she was in the middle of a short discussion with Bobby about advertising and NYG. The letter was short and sweet:

 

> _Meet me in the rose garden gazebo. Shhhh. ~D._

Betty raised one eyebrow. What on earth did he have in mind? If he thought for one minute that they were going to have sex in the middle of September on a gazebo bench….Well, hmmm. So she could probably be talked into it. Betty smiled to herself and made her way as unobtrusively as possible outside. She had no idea that she was being watched.

Claire excused herself to go the bathroom. Alexis remembered a sudden appointment that she was late for. Christina left to go have her baby.  Marc and Amanda left to go find Marc’s contact lens. Justin and Hilda excused themselves to go find out what the first course of dinner was. And Ignacio, he decided that it was a crime against humanity for the canapés to be served without a sauce and left to go invent one.

The seven people met outside near the fountain.

“Shhhhh! Can’t you walk a little quieter?” Alexis hissed as Amanda stumbled around in her heels.

“I can’t see!” Hilda whined.

“Well turning on a torch would sort of negate the reason for all this sneaking about, don’t you think?” Hilda couldn’t smack a pregnant woman, but she could give her a death glare.

Claire spoke with just enough derision in her tone to get everyone following her like some nightmarish version of a mother duck and her ducklings. “When you people are through, I believe the show is starting momentarily.” Ignacio smiled and took her arm, and the couple led the younger folks out towards the gazebo.

Unbeknownst to Betty that she had an audience, she made her way down the barely lit path to the white, covered structure. She saw Daniel standing there holding something in his hand.

He reached out a hand to help her up the steps. “Why, hello there.”

“Hi. You better leave; I’m meeting my lover here.” Betty fluttered her eyelashes melodramatically.

Daniel smiled and drew her into his arms. Both of their lips were a little cold from the cool air, but warmed up quickly.

Daniel, remembering that he did sort of have an agenda here, had to make himself stop kissing Betty and physically take a step back.

A very tiny, minuscule step back.

Betty’s eyes drifted open and she looked up at him. Daniel thought to himself that he would never get tired of seeing the effect he had on her senses.

 “I know you’ve been stressed out with this whole party thing, but…I want to ask you something.”

Unseen, out of Betty’s line of vision, Daniel eased the small box out of his pocket. He took a deep breath. And promptly forgot his rehearsed speech.

“I love you.” He blurted.

Betty’s facial expression turned from blessed out from kissing to  extremely goofy. “I think I could spend the rest of my life listening to you say that.”

Daniel smiled. “Well, funny you should phrase it like that. I…I know things didn’t start out very well for us. I was horrible to you, and you’ve been nothing but loyal…and sweet… and…and beautiful. I want to spend…well…every minute I can with you.” He took a deep breath, and got down on one knee. Betty’s eyes widened behind her glasses.

“I’ve had this since we stayed up until three and watched Harry Potter.” He held up the box and flipped it open.  The ring inside was beautiful…a mix of diamonds and sapphires that glinted in the low light of the gazebo.

Betty reached out with shaking fingers. She caught her breath and looked down at him with teary eyes.

“I don’t know how else to ask this. Betty, I want to spend the rest of my life showing you just how much I adore you. Will you…will you marry me?”

There was a sound from outside the garden which sounded suspiciously like a gasped breath. Then, something that could have been someone whacking someone else over the head with a mysterious object.

Betty was completely oblivious. Her eyes filled up with tears and fell from her cheeks as she nodded, unable to get any words out of her throat. Daniel took the ring from the box and slid it onto her finger.  “It’s a little big,” he whispered, standing up.

“It’s perfect. You’re perfect. Oh, Daniel…I love you so much.” The two’s lips met again.

 

* * *

 

The piece in Page Six was accompanied by several wedding photos of a beautiful Betty and a blissfully happy Daniel holding hands, throwing the bouquet, and feeding each other cake. The article was through; describing the outfits, the glamorous, famous people, and the couple’s other events of the day. There was only one quote: “Well, Daniel and I really owe our happiness to one person. You could say she was the reason that we fell in love. So, thank you…Bianca!”

 

THE END!!!

 

(Whoohoo!!!!!! Thanks so much for those of you that commented, especially those that pointed out Betty’s name to me. Sorry about that. All errors in canon are mine, because as I said I’m fairly new to this fandom. And to you lurkers out there- thanks for reading! I hope you liked it!)

 


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